UC-NRLF 


m 


J.  Henry  Senger 


THE 


WONDERLAND  OF  WOli 


BY 


C.    L.    MATEAUX 


AUTHOR  OF  "HOME  CHAT,"  "AROUND  AND  ABOUT  OLD  ENGLAND,"  "TIM  TRUMBLE'S  LITTLE  MOTHER," 

ETC.,  ETC.,  ETC. 


NEW    ATSTD    REVISED     EDITION. 


WITH    ADDITIONS    BY 


JOSHUA    ROSE    M.E. 


AUTHOR  OF  "THE  COMPLETE  PRACTICAL  MACHINIST,"  "THE  PATTERN-MAKER'S  ASSISTANT,"  "THE  SLIDE-VALVE," 

ETC.,  ETC.,  ETC. 


CASSELL    PUBLISHING    COMPANY 

104  AND  106  FOURTH  AVENUE,  NEW  YORK. 


Copyright,  1884, 
By  0.  M.  DUNHAM 


IN  MEMORIAM 

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T- 
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* 


CONTENTS. 


OLD  KING  COAL  AT  HOME  AND  ABKOAD. 

PAGE 

In  the  mine — At  work — Stavers  of  the  mine — "Heavers"  "holers,"  and  "putters" — "Weighing  coals — 
Screening  coals — Various  modes  of  working  mines — Mining  accidents — The  rescue — The  Davy  lamp — 
Primeval  forest  of  the  coal  period — What  is  coal  ? — Coal  seams— Early  use  of  coals — The  power  of  coals 1 

THE   LIGHTS   OF   OUE   GEEAT   CITIES. 

The  production  of  gas — How  it  is  purified — Gas-holders — Eetorts  and  condensers — Will  Murdock's  hat — 
Coke  and  its  uses — How  coal-tar  is  produced — The  first  gas  balloon— Street-lighting — The  electric  light — 
Jablochkoff  lamp 23 

STEIKING   A   LIGHT. 

The  tinder-box,  flint  and  steel — Swedish  matches — Match-making — A  visit  to  an  English  manufactory — 
Scorching — Filling  frames — Drying-room — Dipping—  Stamping  boxes,  etc.,  etc 36 

CONCEENING  IEON    AND  STEEL. 

The  first  blacksmiths — The  "black  country  of  the  North" — Blast-furnaces— Casting  pig-iron — "Pud- 
dling " — Superstitions  about  iron-work  —Shaping  iron — Eolling  sheet-iron — Casting  iron  in  moulds — The 
grain  of  cast-iron — How  a  fork  is  forged — Forging  under  the  steam-hammer — Nasmyth  and  his  steam- 
hammer— Water  mining  in  Sweden — Smelting  with  coal — The  Bessemer  process — The  value  of  a  little  bit  of 
steel — What  is  manganese — Herr  Krupp's  factory  at  Essen — Gun-making  at  Woolwich — The  eighty-ton  gun — 
How  anchors  are  forged „ 41 

THE    "TOY  SHOP"    OF   THE   WOELD. 

• 

About  a  pin — Pin-making  machines — Pin-sticking  machine — The  largest  pin-factory  in  the  world — 
Needles  and  how  they  are  made — Straightening,  tempering,  pointing,  and  finishing — Files  and  file-cutting — 
The  file-cutter's  tools — File  sharpening  with  the  sand-blast 82 

OUE  KNIVES  AND  FOEKS  AND  SPOONS. 

How  pen-knives  are  made — Forging,  filing,  and  tempering  table  blades— Grinding  and  polishing  blades — 
Cutting  ivory  for  handles — Boring  the  handle — Stamping  spoons — Forging  spoons  and  forks — Steel  forks — 
At  the  electro-plater's — Polishing,  batteries  and  troughs,  soldering  with  the  blowpipe — Turning  oval  dishes — 
Ancient  and  modern  Sheffield 99 

MAN'S  TOOLS  AND  THEIE  USES. 

The  various  kinds  of  hammers — Straightening  saws — How  work  is  measured  one-thousandth  of  an  inch — 
The  use  of  callipers — The  surface  plate — Tool-grinding— The  emery  grinder — The  polishing  wheel — The 
lathe  and  its  uses — Wood-turning— Cutting-tools — The  engine  lathe — The  chucking  lathe  —The  iron-planing 
machine — Effect  of  punching  iron — How  coins  are  stamped — The  milling-machine — Drilling-machines — 
The  wood-worker's  boring  tools — Drills  and  braces — Drilling  square  holes — Boring  and  turning  mills — Some 
of  the  uses  of  iron — Nail-makers — Tacks  and  wood-screws — The  thread  of  screws — Taps  and  how  they  are  used 
—Machine-made  screws — The  screw- forging  machine  and  its  furnace 110 


KING    COAL    UNDER   DIFFERENT    ASPECTS. 


"  BY  A  SEA-COAL  FIRE.  — Shakespeare. 


THE  WONDERLAND  OF  WORK. 


OLD   KING  COAL   AT   HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

F  you  would  visit  the  domains  of  King  Coal  you  had 
better  first  slip  on  one  of  those  loose  grey  flannel  suits 
over  your  own,  and  hide  your  hair  under  a  not  par- 
ticularly becoming  leather  head-dress ;  for  we  shall  most  likely  get  very  dingy  ere  we 
return  from  the  undergroimd  journey  I  propose  taking  you  before  beginning  any  explanation. 
This  journey  is  down — down — down  into  one  of  the  dark  pits  so  numerous  in  the  Black 
Country,  which  is  rich  also  in  iron  ore,  and  the  limestones  that  help  to  purify  it  when  they 
are  melted  together  in  any  of  those  tall  and  smoke-dried  blast-furnaces  which,  for  economy 
and  convenience'  sake,  cluster  as  nearly  as  possible  about  the  pits'  brows.  The  huge 
circular  mouth  of  a  pit-shaft  is  but  a  dismal  and  melancholy-looking  place,  not  at  all 
tempting  to  a  looker-on.  Yet  here  we  are,  and  down  we  must  go;  so  take  your  safety- 
lamp,  step  on  to  the  "  cage/'  or  "  hoppet,"  grasp  tight  hold  of  that  iron  bar,  and 
bid  good-bye  to  daylight  and  fresh  cool  air,  while  a  bell  gives  a  signal,  a  stationary 
engine  instantly  unwinds  the  iron  or  steel  ropes  (found  to  be  much  safer  for  this  work 
than  hempen  ones)  that  hold  our  cage  firmly  enough,  no  doubt,  though  we  are  relieved 
to  hear  that  there  is  strong  brake-power  available,  and  that  the  engine-man — no  one  under 
B 


THE    WONDERLAND    OF     WORK. 


eighteen  is  allowed  to  do  this  work — watches  a  "tell-tale,"  not  unlike 
a  barometer,  to  make  sure  that  his  human  cargo  is  travelling  at  a  safe 
rate.  In  case  of  any  hitch,  our  cage  can  be  stopped  at  once,  for  it  has 
all  the  modern  improvements,  and  they  are  not  a  few. 

In  a  moment  we  are  in  darkness,  except  for  the  faint  glimmer 
of  our  lamps.  The  cage,  which  has  two  or  three  platforms,  or  decks,  is 
covered  in  with  a  huge  umbrella-like  iron  top,  intended  to  receive  and 
ward  off  fragments  of  coal,  stone,  or  other  things  that  might  come 
tumbling  from  the  heights  above.  Down  we  go  with  a  rush ;  and  oh ! 
what  a  strange,  horrid,  gasping  sensation  this  descent  into  a  coal-mine 
is  !  Not  a  bit  as  though  we  were  merely  gliding  rapidly  down  a  walled 
circular  shaft  into  the  depths  of  the  earth,  but  as  though  earth  itself 
were  rising  into  space,  leaving  us  poor  mortals  hundreds  of  miles  below 
its  surface,  in  an  atmosphere  of  utter  darkness  and  desolation. 

A  dreadful  journey  !  We  clutch  the  bar  fast,  and  wonder,  with  a 
breathless  dread,  when  it  will  end.  Suppose  the  ropes  should  break ! 
Suppose  one  of  us  should  tumble  off !  Suppose — but  before  we  have  time 
to  recover  enough  to  suppose  any  more  disagreeables,  there  happens  a  great 
bump,  and  we  find  that  we  have  reached  our  somewhat  dismal  goal,  and 
next  become  aware  that  we  are  being  unceremoniously  bundled  out  of  the 
cage,  to  the  bars  of  which  we  have  clung  so  tightly  that  our  fingers  are 
all  cramped ;  then,  before  we  feel  quite  sure  that  we  are  safely  on  our 
feet,  the  creaking  and  rumbling  re-commence,  and  the  cage,  or  carriage, 
which  has  seemed  restless  to  hurry  on  a  return  voyage  (and  no  wonder!), 


A    PIT-SHAFT,    VENTILATING    FURNACE,    AND   TRAP-DOOR. 


IN    THE    MINE.  3 

is  with  two  other  figures  in  it,  swinging  above  our  heads,  and  off  to  the  upper  earth,  where, 
to  tell  the  truth,  it  is  just  possible  you  may  wish  yourself  safely  landed  again ;  for  of  all  the 
damp,  dismal  places  and  "  uncanny"  sensations,  nothing  beats  the  first  few  minutes  spent  in  a 
mine.  Yet  cheer  up,  fellow-traveller !  Your  eyes  will  soon  get  accustomed  to  peer  through 
the  darkness,  and  your  ears  to  distinguish  the  various  noises  and  far-away  rumblings  that 
fill  the  place  with  a  strangely  mysterious  commotion.  Yonder  we  see  a  great  coming  and 
going  of  shadowy  men,  of  clattering  laden  corves,  or  tubs,  and  trotting  ponies ;  we  hear 
shouting  resounding  through  echoing  galleries,  which  appear  to  branch  off  from  a  main  one, 
and  vanish  into  blackness  in  every  direction.  Altogether  it  is  at  first  quite  bewildering, 
yet  in  a  very  little  time  the  darkness  seems  to  clear  away  somewhat,  so  that  we  scarcely 
need  peer  at  our  lamps  so  anxiously  before  preparing  to  follow  a  dusty  young  sojourner 
in  these  underground  regions,  who  marches  us  to  the  principal  roadway,  along  which  stretches 
a  line  of  tram-rails,  the  use  of  which  we  presently  discover. 


THE   HSWEfi  AT   WOEK. 


For  some  time  our  onward  progress  is  easy  enough;  we  are  getting  used  to  the  close 
atmosphere,  and  the  tiny  twinkling  lights  begin  to  look  quite  natural  and  homely.  Our 
grimy  guide  is  ready  with  his  answers  to  all  our  inquiries,  but  presently  we  have  to  stoop 
and  dive,  to  avoid  a  rough  knock  now  and  then  about  our  heads  or  shoulders ;  next  we  are 
troubled  by  a  most  peculiar  noise  in  advance  of  us — it  sounds  like  distant  thunder.  We 
peer  anxiously  into  the  darkness,  but  can  make  out  nothing,  only  that  the  noise  is  rapidly 
advancing  straight  in  our  direction,  and  is  increasing  to  a  most  fearful  din—closer  and 
closer.  What  dreadful  thing  is  going  to  happen?  At  last  we  cannot  forbear  shrieking 
out  an  inquiry  to  our  guide,  who  shrieks  back  coolly  enough  that  it  is  only  a  train  of 
heavily-laden  railway  rolleys  full  of  corves,  or  measures,  of  coal,  that  go  up  and  down 
this  tramway.  "  There  is  a  return  one  passes  them  just  here.  Better  step  back  out  of 
their  road:  there  ain't  no  room  for  them  and  us  at  a  time.  Get  back  sharp!  or" — the 
rumbling  hollow  sound  drowns  the  rest  of  his  remark,  and  we  look  about  us  frantically 
anxious  to  oblige,  for  the  noise  is  deafening  and  the  danger  uncertain.  However,  we 
retreat  close  to  the  rough  wall,  and  find,  much  to  our  relief,  that  cut  into  it,  no  doubt  to 
provide  for  such  a  dilemma  as  ours,  are  a  series  of  recesses,  into  one  of  which  any  ordinary 
body  can  pop,  while  a  long  and  heavily-laden  train  of  corves — which  hold  from  ten  to 


4  THE    WONDEELAND    OF    WOEK. 

twelve  cwt.,  and  which  we  notice  run  upon  four  sharply-pointed  wheels,  set  very  closely 
together  that  they  may  be  tilted — pass  us  on  their  way  to  the  mouth  of  the  shaft. 

When  we  have  waited  for  a  convoy  of  empties  to  clatter  and  rattle  by  in  the 
opposite  direction,  we  step  out  again  and  resume  our  voyage  of  discovery,  leaving  what 
may  be  termed  the  high-road  —  "jinney"  our  conductor  calls  it — of  the  mine  to 
venture  into  all  sorts  of  dark  narrow  workings,  wriggling  ourselves  into  various  dismal 
holes  and  corners,  that  we  may  get  a  better  idea  of  what  those  poor  fellows  have  to 
endure  who  toil,  half  clad  and  wholly  covered  with  coal-dust,  until  they  are  as  dingy 
as  niggers — struggling  in  heat  and  darkness  for  the  black  treasure  which  is  to  carry  warmth 
and  light  and  comfort  to  the  busy  world  above. 

We  are  told  that  in  some  parts  of  the  mine  these  strong  "  hewers  " — the  actual  diggers, 
I  mean — can  loosen  as  much  as  six  tons  of  coal  a  day  from  the  firm  bed  in  which  it 


BTAVEB8   OF    THE   MINE "  HEWERS,"   "  HOLERS,"    AND   "  PUTTEK8." 

has  lain  undisturbed  for  so  many  ages ;  but  the  progress  is  much  more  slow  in  what 
is  known  as  "  low  travelling/'  where  the  vein  of  coal  is  very  narrow — sometimes  not  much 
more  than  two  feet  thick;  then  the  poor  collier  has  a  dreadfully  hard  task  to  accomplish. 
The  only  possible  manner  by  which,  pick  in  hand,  he  can  work  his  way  into  the  vein  is 
by  lying  face  downwards,  and  stretched  full  length  upon  a  kind  of  low  iron  tray,  or  cart, 
which  he  calls  a  "  jackram ; "  this  he  propels  forward  with  his  bare  toes,  painfully 
hammering  and  picking  his  way  as  he  moves  thus  uncomfortably,  creeping  snail-like  into 
apertures  too  small  to  admit  a  man's  body  in  any  other  position. 

When  these  poor  hewers,  "holers,"  or  " undergoers/'  have  done  loosening  enough 
coal  in  any  particular  vein,  the  "  putters "  take  the  work  in  hand.  They  are  usually  very 
young  fellows,  whose  business  it  is  to  load  the  broken  coal  into  big  corves,  or  baskets, 
which  by  dint  of  pushing  and  pulling  they  drag  off  to  the  more  open  spaces  where  it 
B  possible  to  get  the  assistance  of  ponies;  for,  as  we  are  shown,  many  of  these  useful 
animals,  mostly  imported  from  Norway  and  Iceland  for  the  purpose,  are  kept  in  the 
mine.  Some  of  them,  indeed,  never  go  out  of  it.  Here  they  have  stables,  hay,  and  fodder; 
fresh  water  and  corn  are  sent  down  every  day,  and  a  horse-keeper  looks  after  their 
health  and  comfort;  so  they  are  not  so  badly  off  as  we  might  fancy,  though  after  all 
it  must  be  sorry  work  for  a  poor  horse  never  to  gallop  over  the  pleasant  greensward,  or 


WEIGHING    COALS.  5 

to  feel  the  fresh  air  and  warm  sunshine  he  would  enjoy  so  much,  but  only  to  perambulate 
long  galleries,  with  full  or  empty  rolleys  at  his  heels.  However,  we  must  remember  that 
habit  goes  a  long  way,  and  that  the  poor  half-blind  creatures  are  doing  good  service  in 
this  dark  underground  world,  where,  as  we  know,  they  relieve  the  "putters"  of  their 
heavy  "  upbrows  "  of  filled  corves.  These  "  putters,"  or  "  hurriers  " — many  of  them  boys, 
who  have  often  to  crawl  almost  at  full  length,  owing  to  the  lowness  of  the  excavations — 
we  are  told  generally  form  a  kind  of  partnership.  Thus,  when  two  lads  are  of  about  the 
same  age  and  strength,  they  always  work  together  as  "  half  marrows/'  and  share  the  profits 
equally;  when  one  is  bigger  and  stronger  than  the  other,  he  is  called  the  "headsman/' 


A   BOY    AND   WOMAN    ON    THE    BROW    OF    THE    PIT   WEIGHING    COALS. 

the  weaker  assistant  is  dubbed  his  "foal/'  and  of  course,  as  he  brings  less  strength  and 
power  to  the  business,  he  has  to  be  content  with  a  smaller  proportion  of  their  joint  earnings. 
Time  was  when  we  might  have  seen  girls  at  this  hard  work;  men  mined  the  coal,  and 
women  "  carried "  loads  heavier  than  themselves.  It  is  well  we  need  fear  no  such  sight 
now,  for  the  law  has  put  a  stop  to  that,  though  it  does  not  keep  them  from  the  pit's  mouth. 

Having  seen  the  coals  hewn  and  "  put/'  we  follow  our  sedate  and  shadowy- 
leader,  to  watch  the  great  corves  placed  in  the  care  of  the  "  cranesman,"  who  carefully 
numbers  each  load  before  seeing  it  laden  on  to  the  rolley,  or  waggon,  which  is  to- 
transport  it  to  the  bottom  of  the  up-shaft,  where  it  is  taken  charge  of  by  two  young 
but  strong-armed  "onsetters/'  whose  business  evidently  is  to  hook  on  the  full  corves 
and  start  them  on  their  upward  career,  and  to  unhook  the  empty  ones  when  they 
come  swinging  lightly  down  again  after  their  journey,  which  has  been  performed  at 


6  THE    WONDERLAND    OF    WORK. 

a  wonderful  rate.  As  all  these  loads  are  "  banked,"  that  is,  arrive  upon  the  platform  on  the 
pit's  brow,  the  corves  at  once  pass  over  a  weighbridge,  and  the  quantity  which  each  contains 
is  ascertained  before  it  is  emptied,  or  "tipped,"  on  to  a  big  heap  outside.  Each  fresh 
arrival  brings  with  it  a  numbered  tin  or  brass  ticket,  bearing  the  number  and  name  of  the 
hewer  who  has  sent  it  up  from  the  depths;  and  as  the  corve  is  almost  instantaneously 
weighed,  a  boy  appointed  for  the  purpose  calls  out  the  name  and  the  amount  of  coals 
answering  to  it,  which  are  set  down  carefully  in  a  weigh-book,  and  that  there  should  be 
no  chance  of  mistake,  a  "  check- weighman "  is  always  on  the  spot  to  verify  the  weighing 
in  the  name  of  the  absent  underground  worker.  The  contents  of  the  corves,  which  have 
been  thus  disposed  of  in  the  "  tumbling "  or  tipping  cage,  are  now  to  be  "  screened/' 
that  is,  to  go  through  a  kind  of  sifting  process  in  a  large  screen,  somewhat  resembling  a 
monster  and  massive  gridiron,  its  bars  from  an  inch  to  an  inch  and  a  half  apart.  All  the 
big  pieces  of  course  stay  in  here,  while  those  that  can  fall  through  do  so,  passing  into 
another  "screen"  to  be  sifted  into  "nuts"  by  dropping  through  its  bars,  which  are 
only  half  an  inch  apart.  Even  the  remainder  of  mere  coarse  dust,  or  <(  slack,"  which 
is  again  sorted  by  boys  and  women,  finds  a  ready  market,  I  ping  used  in  coal-ovens, 
iron-furnaces,  and  for  the  manufacture  of  patent  "briquettes,"  or  fuel  of  various  kinds. 
Next,  when  sufficiently  screened,  the  pieces  are  tipped  into  a  flat  shoot,  and  from  thence 
fall  clattering  into  the  waggons  or  trucks  which  are  to  convey  them  by  road  or  rail 
to  various  parts  of  the  kingdom ;  some  economical  purchasers,  however,  bring  their  carts 
to  be  filled  at  the  pit's  mouth,  and  quantities  are  carried  off  to  the  barges  or  vessels  which 
are  to  take  them  away  by  water. 

It  used  to  be  a  very  common  thing  to  meet  by  the  banks  of  the  Thames  or  other  rivers 
with  many  busy  bands  of  "coal-whippers;"  they  were  usually  composed  of  nine  men,  one 
taking  the  lead :  some  of  them  did  the  shovelling  of  coals  from  the  holds  of  the  vessels  into 
big  baskets,  which  others  hauled  up  by  means  of  ropes  and  pulleys,  ready  for  their  matea 
who,  wearing  great  flapped  leather  hats,  carried  them  off  on  their  backs  and  emptied 
them  into  the  long  open  "  lighters/'  which  were  to  bear  them  to  the  several  coal-wharves. 
It  was  a  hard  and  ill-paid  work  that  now  is  seldom  heard  of — at  any  rate,  on  a  large  scale ; 
for  a  floating  derrick  and  steam -worked  arms  can  do  the  business  in  far  less  time,  and  in 
&  much  more  effectual  manner  than  the  poor  coal-whippers.  But  stop !  We  are  travelling 
too  fast,  forgetting  that  we  are  in  our  coal-mine,  and  far  from  the  shining  Thames. 

We  have  not  as  yet  seen  through  the  glorious  domain  of  "  King  Coal ; "  we  have 
not  done  walking  through  his  narrow  roads,  where  the  deeper  we  go,  the  hotter  and  more 
oppressive  grows  the  atmosphere,  though,  being  a  properly-regulated  mine,  it  is  only  at 
the  rate  of  one  degree  for  every  sixty  feet  we  descend.  Sometimes  we  come  to  quite  a 
neat  and  shiny  little  black  drawing-room,  the  walls  of  which  are  clearly  composed  o. 
layers  and  strata  of  ironstone,  blue  clay,  and  shale;  but  in  other  places  we  as 
suddenly  come  to  where  some  poor  "  undergoer "  is  working  in  such  a  narrow  "  vein " 
that  he  has  to  lie  sideways.  We  can  see  little  of  him  but  his  bare  dusty  feet  as  he  works 
painfully  at  making  a  long  thin  hole  in  the  narrow  seam  of  coal,  into  which  he 
drives  his  sharp  iron  drilling-tools  as  deep  as  they  will  go;  then  he  toils  with  snort 
«tout  picks  and  hammers,  over  which  he  has  not  enough  command  for  the  work  he  has 


WOMEN    SCREENING    COALS    AT    THE    PIT'S   MOUTH. 


g  THE    WONDERLAND    OF    WORK. 

to  do,  for  he  cannot  swing  them  as  he  ought.  Having  to  work  them  without  any 
proper  leverage  no  doubt  adds  to  his  fatigue,  yet  on  he  has  to  drag  his  weary  way, 
loosening  and  driving  out  as  best  he  can  the  coal  which  rattles  about  him. 

There  are  different  modes  of  working  mines,  which  our  guide  tries  to  make  as  clear 
to  us  as  possible.  In  the  Shropshire  method,  which  can  only  be  adopted  with  "  thin 
coals/'  as  each  "chamber"  is  emptied  and  cleared  of  its  riches  it  is  deserted,  and  the 
wooden  beams  or  props — usually  formed  of  the  trunks  of  small  oaks  or  of  sturdy  English 
larches — of  which  there  seem  to  be  hundreds  about,  being  required  for  use  elsewhere, 
are  withdrawn  and  carried  away,  leaving  what  is  called  a  "goaf,"  or  empty  space,  that 
sooner  or  later  falls  in,  often  producing  a  kind  of  earthquake  in  the  land  above,  tippling^ 
over  the  poor  little  hovels  built  upon  it.  In  some  parts  of  Staffordshire  there  are 
entire  districts  where  whole  rows  of  houses  can  be  seen  half  sinking  into  the  ground, 
or  uncomfortably  perched  at  every  angle  but  the  right.  They  are  the  wretched  habita- 
tions of  the  colliers  digging  and  delving  below — men  who  get  good  wages,  but  are  not 
over-provident  as  a  rule,  partly  because  of  a  system  which  long  prevailed  of  getting  all 
the  things  they  required  on  credit,  or  "  truck,"  from  a  middleman,  and  thus  being  too  often 
overcharged  and  cheated  out  of  their  hard-earned  money. 

In  straight  or  narrow  drifts,  levels  are  fixed  in  various  positions,  and  many  rough 
pillars  of  coal  are  left  standing  to  support  the  roof.  This  is  termed  the  "post  and  stall" 
method,  and  is  so  managed  that  all  these  posts  or  pillars  of  coal  can  be  one  day  worked  back 
upon  and  removed.  We  can  fairly  stand  up  here  to  look  about  us;  but  the  noises  we 
hear  are  rather  startling,  until  we  are  informed  that  those  mysterious  hollow  bangs, 
sounding  like  distant  thunder,  and  filling  the  air  with  sulphurous  smoke,  are  caused  by 
workers  "holing"  the  coal-bottoms. 

This,  we  soon  find  out,  means  that  after  the  coal  has  been  cut  away  some  ten  feet 
wide  and  five  or  six  feet  deep,  the  collier  drills  deep  openings  in  the  coal  walls,  as 
close  up  near  the  roof  as  he  can  get  at ;  then  he  carefully  fills  these  holes  with 
gunpowder,  and  next  proceeds  to  blast  them  in  such  a  manner  that  all  the  coal  about 
them  shall  be  shattered,  loosened,  and  easily  broken  up  into  bits  ready  to  be  at  once 
carried  off  by  the  "putters"  and  "hurriers."  It  must  be  a  disagreeable  and  grimy 
task,  filling  eyes  and  mouth  with  dust  and  smoke.  No  wonder  that  the  men  engaged  in 
it  speak  in  sue1!  hoarse  tones,  or  that  they  are  more  like  dark  spirits  of  the  mine 
than  honest  mortals  at  their  daily  work.  And  no  wonder  either,  that  of  late  years  this 
dangerous  method  of  blasting  coal  should  have  been  almost  altogether  discontinued  in 
all  the  most  important  pits,  and  the  pick  and  wedge  alone  resorted  to. 

On  our  way  in  and  out  of  these  mysterious  galleries  and  "  chambers,"  our  guide  turns 
his  light  on  many  workers,  who  to  our  unaccustomed  eyes  all  seem  to  have  a  sort  of  weird  and 
wistful  look — though  I  believe  that  miners  get  to  like  their  occupation;  indeed,  there  is  a 
saying,  "  Once  a  miner,  always  a  miner."  We  meet  with  "  shifters  "  and  "  wasters "  and 
"  way-cleaners,"  who,  bustling  or  peering  about,  with  the  light  in  their  lamps  gleaming  like 
fire-flies,  seem  to  be  busy  everywhere.  Boys,  who  are  not  allowed  down  until  thirteen 
years  of  age,  are  clearing  away  the  stray  bits  of  coal  or  shale  that  may  have  dropped  in 
the  way;  others  sweeping  and  removing  coal-dust,  and  keeping  the  tramways  clear  of 


MINING    ACCIDENTS. 


9 


obstructions  which  might  cause  accidents.  Then,  too,  the  lately  cleared  "  chambers "  must 
be  watched,  and  supported  with  sturdy  beams  of  timber  placed  across  their  openings,  lest 
they  should  suddenly  fall  in  and  block  up  the  paths  and  passages  about  them. 

There  goes  the  "  butty,"  who,  it  appears,  gives  out  the  work,  and  the  "  doggy/'  who 
sees  that  it  is  properly  done — so  at  least  our  smudgy  guide  calls  two  shadowy  figures  yonder, 
talking  to  a  third  man,  evidently  a  visitor  from  above,  known  as  the  "  banksman,"  who  keeps 
accounts  and  receives  coals,  and  seems  a  generally  useful  person.  But  I  expect  these  are 
local  terms,  and  would  not  be  understood  by  the  colliers  of  different  counties. 

One  most  important  part  of  the  whole  business,  concerning  the  welfare  and  safety  of 
the  miners,  is  that  relating  to  the  drainage  and  ventilation,  which  should  be  kept  as  perfect 


THK    RESCDB  — ONLY    JUST    IN    TIME. 


as  possible,  and  be  constantly  noted  and  reported  upon;  for  even  with  liie  best  care  and 
arrangements  a  great  and  unexpected  increase  of  noxious  gases  sometimes  takes  place,  owing 
to  the  sudden  loosening  and  release  of  long-stored-up  masses  of  coal.  It  has  happened,  even  in 
well-ventilated  mines,  that  a  single  careless  stroke  has  opened  a  "  blower."  Neither  you,  nor 
I,  nor  any  of  those  hundreds  of  toilers  would  ever  see  daylight  again  if  the  ventilation  of  this 
underground  world  chanced  to  be  neglected  or  obstructed  for  ever  so  short  a  time.  Damp 
unwholesome  gases,  gunpowder,  and  the  breath  of  so  many  creatures  would  soon  become 
unbearable,  and  cause  suffocation.  Even  as  it  is,  over  a  thousand  fatal  accidents  each  year  are 
computed  to  happen  to  the  poor  workers,  from  one  cause  or  another,  in  the  mines  of  the  United 
Kingdom.  One  of  the  most  painful  accidents,  our  guide  reminds  us,  happened  in  the  Hartley 
Colliery,  where  204  unfortunate  men  in  the  mine  were  starved  to  death  through  the  iron 
beam  of  the  pumping-engine  falling  into  the  shaft  and  blocking  it  up. 

The  guide  tells  us  that  in  one  year — 1878,  for  instance — our  supply  of  coals,  which 
consisted  of  132,612,063  tons,  cost  1,413  lives;  that  out  of  every  336  workers  one  was 
killed,  and  some  of  them  in  a  very  shocking  manner.  It  seems  strange  that  so  many  men 


10  THE    WONDERLAND    OF    WORK. 

should  be  found  to  undertake  cheerily  such  a  business.  This  reminds  me  of  what  a  visitor 
to  the  mine  wrote  some  years  ago  concerning  a  miner's  dangers  and  difficulties  : — 

"A  large  and  increasing  part  of  the  British  population  lives  a  hazardous,  uncouth,  and 
cheerless  life  in  the  bowels  of  the  earth,  further  than  Lynceus  ever  saw,  and  deeper  than 
Cyclops  ever  descended.  So  little  are  we  of  this  upper  earth  accustomed  to  dive  below  the 
surface,  that  in  order  to  form  any  idea  of  the  level  at  which  a  collier  does  his  daily  work 
we  must  measure  it  by  something  above  our  heads.  We  must  suppose  our  wives  and 
children  on  a  level  with  the  cross  of  St.  Paul's,  perhaps  higher,  and  ourselves  daily 
descending  by  ropes  to  the  sewers  of  this  city.  We  shudder  at  the  thought  of  hardy 
islanders  suspended  over  the  precipice  in  quest  of  birds'  eggs.  The  collier's  descent  is  often 
deeper,  and  his  doom,  should  he  fall,  more  certain.  Should  he  miss  a  step  at  the  'bank/ 
should  the  rope  break  in  his  descent,  should  a  wheel  in  the  engine  be  put  out  of  gear 
or  a  peg  out  of  place,  or  should  the  boy  at  the  pit's  mouth  be  inattentive  for  a  moment, 
the  next  instant  basket,  rope,  and  man  lie  an  undistinguishable  mass  at  the  bottom  of  the 
shaft.  But  that  is  only  one,  and  no1  the  greatest  of  his  dangers.  The  miner  moves  in 
an  atmosphere  into  which  a  million  chinks  and  pores  distil  a  deadly  vapour.  The  very 
air  he  breathes  is  a  magazine  oi  destruction.  Wherever  he  extends  his  labours  he  lays 
bare  a  new  surface  and  starts  a  fresh  foe.  In  these  upper  regions  the  natural  currents 
of  air  diffuse  and  carry  off  all  noxious  effluvia  as  fast  as  they  arise;  but  the  natural 
atmosphere  of  these  wonderful  vaults  is  itself  a  poison,  and  the  vital  air  we  breathe 
must  be  artificially  introduced  in  quantities  sufficient  not  only  for  human  consumption, 
but  for  the  expulsion  of  local  gases.  A  strong  current  of  fresh  air  must  be  brought  down 
a  shaft,  conducted  through  the  whole  mine,  carefully  sweeping  every  corner  and  recea?, 
and  so  passed  up  another  shaft  to  the  surface.  If  this  current  be  insufficient,  or  accidentally 
interrupted,  the  foul  vapours  accumulate,  and  a  naked  candle,  a  spark,  or  a  lighted  pipe 
explodes  the  whole  mine,  burning,  suffocating,  or  dashing  to  pieces  every  living  being  in 
its  range.  The  explosion,  which  drives  out  by  the  pit's  mouth  the  whole  mass  of  air 
within,  entails  a  reaction  not  less  deadly.  The  '  after-blast '  finishes  the  work  of  de- 
struction. The  list  of  perils  is  not  complete  unless  we  add  that  everywhere  are  suspended 
over  the  collier's  head  vast  masses  of  material  ready  to  fall  and  bury  him  at  his  work." 

As  I  am  thinking  sadly  over  this,  and  rejoicing  that  matters  are  somewhat  mended,  our 
guide  is  volunteering  information  on  the  subject. 

Before  the  steam-engine  helped  to  drain  mines  and  to  carry  away  coals,  excavations  were 
carried  on  to  a  much  more  limited  extent ;  yet  even  then  the  spirit  of  the  mine  was  generally 
rampant  at  the  intrusion  of  mortals  into  his  "  beds,"  and  being  lighter  than  the  rest  of  the  air, 
he  often  hid  in  what  is  called  the  "  forehead,"  or  upper  part  of  the  chambers  of  the  mine,  that 
he  might  work  men  evil,  as  he  could  easily  do,  being  invisible  to  all  eyes,  and  only  to  be 
detected  by  fire,  which  is  the  weapon  with  which  he  destroys.  The  poor  miners  were  terrified 
at  the  enemy  they  found  pervading  every  corner.  They  beat  him  off  into  the  air,  or,  knowing 
no  better  way  to  defeat  him,  "  fired  "  his  principal  hiding-place  every  morning.  This  they 
did  by  fixing  a  lighted  candle  to  the  end  of  a  long  pole,  which  they,  lying  full  length  on  the 
rough  floor,  extended  carefully  towards  the  "  forehead  "  where  the  evil  thing  hid.  Of  course, 
this  inflamed  fire-damp  instantly  caught  at  the  small  flame  as  it  reached  its  neighbourhood, 


THE    DAVY   LAMP. 


11 


expanded,  blew  a  great  angry  blast,  and  vanished  in  flame  and  fury,  defeated  for  the  time 
being,  much  to  the  relief  of  the  prostrate  miner,  who  usually  donned  wet  clothes  for  the 
encounter,  dreading  to  be  burnt  and  scorched  by  the  hot  breath  of  his  retiring  enemy.  But 
sometimes  this  same  dreaded  damp  was  too  strong  to  be  attacked  by  hand  thus,  and  then  the 
operator  stood  at  a  safe  distance  and  passed  his  candle  slowly  towards  the  invisible  foe — that, 
luckily,  is  always  to  be  found  up  in  the  air,  just  as  water  is  to  be  looked  for  at  our  feet — by 
means  of  a  cord  and  a  catch  fixed  at  the  other  end  of  the  gallery.  This  mode  of  exploding 
the  inflammable  gas  was  known  as  the  "  firing  line "  explosive.  We  have  heard  so  much 
here  by  this  time  about  the  danger  of  fire-damp  and  explosive  gases,  that  we  look  with 
renewed  and  lively  interest  at  the  ingenious  little  lamps  we  carry,  the 
like  of  which  have  saved  so  many  precious  lives.  The  "  Davy "  and 
the  "  Geordie  "  are  those  mostly  in  use,  and  if  the  collier,  that  most 
reckless  of  beings,  could  only  be  persuaded  to  use  them  more 
carefully,  and  not  to  open  them  on  every  occasion  when  he  wants 
to  smoke  a  forbidden  pipe,  these  lamps  would  be  of  still  more  value 
in  defeating  the  foe  than  they  are  at  present. 

Sir  Humphry  Davy's  invention  is  certainly  very  simple  and  easily 
understood.  In  it,  the  flame  is  surrounded  by  a  perforated  metal  case 
of  fine  wire  gauze,  the  holes  in  which  are  large  enough  to  allow 
the  light  to  pass  out,  but  not  enough  heat  to  affect  the  air  about  it, 
in  which,  as  we  know,  explosive  gases  too  often  abound.  Sometimes, 
however,  if  the  safety-lamp  passes  through  the  fire-damp,  some  of  it 
gets  inside ;  but  there  it  burns,  for  it  is  caged  and  cannot  get  out,  or 
do  mischief  to  the  bearer,  although  perhaps  it  will  put  out  the  light 
in  the  lamp,  burning  with  a  strange  flame  itself.  Fortunately,  this 
peculiar  gas — scientific  men  call  it  light  carburetted  hydrogen,  and 
tell  us  it  is  composed  of  one  part  carbon  and  two  parts  hydrogen — 
is  not  to  be  met  with  in  every  mine,  being  more  abundant  in  coals 
of  the  bituminous  or  caking  kind.  It  is  altogether  a  stranger  in  some 

Scotch  mines,  though  it  is  far  too  generally  found  in  those  of  Northumberland,  Durham, 
Cumberland,  Yorkshire,  and  Staffordshire,  where  it  works  great  harm,  in  spite  of  all  the 
care  taken  to  foil  it. 

We  see  nothing  of  the  kind  for  ourselves  in  this  dry,  we  11- ventilated  mine,  but  oui 
guide  assures  us  that  in  some  out-of-the-way  recesses,  where  the  air  cannot  circulate  freely, 
a  great  quantity  of  most  peculiar-looking  soft  fungi  grows  in  masses,  clinging  especially  to  the 
timber  beams  supporting  the  sides  and  roof.  He  describes  it  as  more  like  soft  white  wool 
than  anything  else,  and  says  that  at  a  single  touch  it  drops,  and  vanishes  like  some  magic 
thing.  A  noisome  vegetation  truly,  and  worthy  of  the  spirit  of  the  mine,  so  fond  of  the 
hidden  corners  of  his  dreary  underground  domain,  but  whose  presence  is  not  a  pleasant  thing 
for  visitors  to  remember  at  present. 

Suddenly  we  find  ourselves  directly  under  the  upcast  shaft — every  colliery  owner  is  bound 
to  provide  two  means  of  egress — which  leads  to  the  world  of  light  and  life.  We  can  almost 
fancy,  as  we  peer  up  it,  that  we  see  a  round  piece  of  the  blue  sky  which  we  shall  be  so  glad  to 


THB    DAVY    LAMP. 


12 


THE    WONDERLAND    OF    WORK. 


greet  again  ;  but  as  we  know  this  shaft  has  to  do  with  the  important  subject  of  ventilation—- 
which is  carried  out  by  means  of  "  brattice  cloths/'  or  timber  partitions,  up  one  side  and  down 
another  of  which  the  air  is  constantly  travelling1 — we  are  content  to  step  back  and  follow 
our  leader  through  a  little  open  door,  then  along  a  close,  muddy,  dark  passage,  then  through 
another  little  door,  which  bangs  to  behind  us  as  we  suddenly  find  ourselves  standing  in  such 
a  violent  draught  that  we  are  glad  to  clutch  our  hats  fast  and  scamper  across  to  the  other  side, 
where  a  tall  dingy  stoker,  lightly  dressed  after  the  manner  of  his  kind,  stands  armed  with  a 
long  iron  rod,  with  which  he  is  stirring  up  a  fine  roaring,  flaring  fire  in  a  furnace,  near  which 
is  the  wide  fire-brick  chimney  or  shaft  which  carries  up  the  hot  air  to  the  pit's  mouth. 

I  am  very  glad  to  say  we  have  met  neither  women  nor  little  children  through  the  whole 
of  this  underground  journey.  But  there  are  plenty  outside,  working  about  the  screens  and 
tips ;  bare-armed  women  wearing  the  same  dress  as  the  men  we  have  left  below,  and  some 
smoking  short  pipes,  so  that  we  have  to  look  in  their  blackened  faces  before  we  can  see 
any  difference.  As  they  sift  and  fetch  and  carry,  we  observe  that  they  are  smart  in  the 

matter  of  necklaces  and  ear-rings  and  cheap  finery.      Children 
under  ten  are  not  allowed  here  at  all,  but  must  go  to  school. 
Poor   mites !    times    are    changed    for    the    better,  as  far   as 
they    are   concerned.      Before    1844   both    they   and    their 
mothers  worked    like    slaves  in  the  depths  we 
have  just  left. 

As    we    have    learnt    something    concern- 
ing colliers  of  to-day,  let  us  here  make  men- 
tion of  the  underground 
workers  of    the   era   of 


THE   COLLIERY   GIRLS. 


PRIMEVAL    FOREST    OF    THE    COAL    PERIOD.  13 

King  James  I.  These  poor  men  seem  to  have  had  very  hard  times,  not  only  from  the 
danger  of  the  mines — for  there  were  no  kinds  of  engines  or  safety-lamps  with  which  to 
defy  the  evil  spirit  of  the  depths — but  they  were  harshly  treated,  especially  in  Scotland, 
not  being  allowed  to  leave  an  employer  without  giving  a  twelvemonth's  notice.  When 
the  regular  colliers  began  to  get  scarce,  the  coal  proprietors  were  allowed  to  seize  upon 
any  unfortunate  homeless  vagrant  they  met  with,  and  send  him  down,  willing  or 
unwilling,  to  toil  in  the  mine,  to  dig  out  the  coal,  to  attend  to  the  pumps,  or  to  clear 
the  way,  for  as  long  as  it  suited  these  unprincipled  masters,  which  might  be  for  a  lifetime. 
And  terribly  hard  toil,  too;  for  the  law  decreed  that  "all  cole-hewerers  should  worke  all 
the  six  dayes  of  the  weeke,  and  if  any  lyed  idle  they  should  pay  twentie  shillings  for 
everie  day  not  employed,  and  suffer  other  punishments  of  their  bodies."  This  was  but 
one  of  several  hard  laws,  which  remained  unaltered  until  the  closing  year  of  the  last 
century. 

If  after  seeing  so  much  of  it  we  seriously  inquire  "What  is  coal?"  we  are  told  by 
many  earnest  students  of  the  mysterious  Wonderland  of  Nature  that  it  is  the  mineralised 
remains  of  a  strange  vegetation  which  must  have  grown  and  flourished  for  a  very  long  period 
in  the  remotest  ages  of  our  world — when  the  conditions  of  the  earth  were  entirely  different 
from  what  they  are  now,  and  man  himself  had  not  yet  been  created :  for  the  warm 
and  humid  atmosphere  in  which  such  gigantic  and  luxuriant  ferns,  conifers,  palms,  and 
other  like  trees  could  alone  exist  and  grow  everywhere,  was  not  fitted  to  be  breathed  by 
such  delicate  lungs  as  those  possessed  by  any  human  creatures.  There  could  have  been 
no  such  thing  as  what  we  term  "climate''  in  those  days,  or  rather  there  must  have 
been  one  settled  climate  all  the  world  over,  for  exactly  the  same  kind  of  fossil  vegetable 
remains  are  found  scattered  far  and  near,  and  hidden  away  in  all  latitudes,  from 
Spitzbergen  to  the  centre  of  Africa,  from  Greenland  to  Guinea — everywhere  the  remains 
of  this  mysterious  "carboniferous  flora"  are  found  to  be  precisely  of  the  same  kind,  which 
could  not  have  happened  had  there  not  been  one  equal  temperature.  There  can  be  no 
doubt  that  the  vegetation  of  those  times  was  something  very  different  from  what  we  can 
possibly  imagine  growing  in  our  temperate  land,  as  indeed  it  could  not  grow  now.  Monster 
trees  pressed  close  together,  filling  the  solitary  and  untenanted  forests  with  rank  foliage 
that  spread  with  a  mighty  luxuriance.  Ferns,  bushes,  shrubs,  mosses,  and  water-plants 
— things  we  now  think  of  but  as  pretty  and  insignificant — were  then  important  parts 
of  the  landscape.  Those  slender  little  weeds,  for  instance,  country  children  call  "mare's- 
tails/'  and  love  to  twist  and  twine  in  their  pinky  fingers,  were  then  represented  by  such 
tall  trees  as  these  Equiseta,  which,  as  you  see,  were  not  at  all  unlike  giant  asparagus, 
while  its  new  buds  spring  up  from  the  ground  round  about  it,  growing  as  that  ck>es  by 
means  of  an  underground  stem  (see  page  14). 

What  a  wonderful  sight  a  flourishing  forest  on  such  a  scale  would  have  presented  had  any 
mortal  eye  been  there  to  view  its  marvels.  In  every  direction  spread  crisp,  green  lycopods, 
such  as  we  now  cultivate  as  delicate  little  plants — insignificant  but  pleasing.  Then,  they 
spread  far  and  near  some  eighty  feet  about  the  mighty  Sigillarias,  nursed  in  constant  heat 
and  moisture,  rising  until  they  had  attained  to  over  a  hundred  feet  or  more ;  and  at  their 
base,  pressing  closely  about  the  monster  stems,  grew  dense  thicknesses  of  herbaceous  plants 


A  PRIMEVAL  FOREST—  A.  PORTRAIT  ON  COAL  OF  THE  FIRST  KNOWN  REPTILE— EQUISETA  AND  TREE-FERNS 


FORESTS    OF    THE    COAL    PEKIOD. 


15- 


and  weeds  of  all  kinds,  ferns  and  clumps  of  soft  moss-like  plants  which  caught  and  held 
the  moisture,  while  twining  tufts  of  strange  form,  and  wreathing  garlands,  flung  their 
tendrils  from  trunk  and  stem,  forming  altogether  a  scene  of  which  only  travellers  in  the 
tropical  forests  of  the  East  may  perhaps  get  a  faint  image ;  for  there,  in  the  moist,  hot  depths, 
are  still  to  be  found  many  of  the  same  giant  kinds  of  palms,  aloes,  tall  water-rushes,  and 
quaint-branched,  many-leaved  shrubs,  half  hidden  in  rank,  tangled  undergrowth  of  weeds, 
which  must  in  that  dim  old  time  of  the  Carboniferous  era  have  been  as  general  in  what 
is  now  Europe  as  elsewhere  on  the  great  wide  wonderful  world. 

Yet  though  these  old  forests  must  have  been  so  marvellously  strange  and  luxuriant,  it 

could  have  been  but  an 
unsatisfactory  beauty. 
The     tall     tree-ferns, 
with     their     lace-like 
leaves  (of  which  three 
hundred    species  have 
been  discovered  in  the 
different  coal- series  of 
Europe,   though    they 
now  only  yield   about 
fifty),   and    numerous 
other      trees       and 
plants — all  most 
graceful      and 
fair  to  see — 

*          XWWC^NX^C,  i*^KXY^\\\\%. 

prodti<  ed  no  flower  or  bud ; 
of  pure  white  or  glowing 
purple  blossom  there  was  not 
one,  nor  sweet  ripe  fruit  or  shining 
scarlet  berry.  There  was  no  man, 
singing  bird,  or  other  breathing  crea- 
ture on  land  as  yet  to  need  or  enjoy  such 
things,  and  such  things  were  not.  The  only 
sign  of  life  was  in  the  waters,  though  swamp 
and  pool  and  river  lay  hidden  and  overhung  by 
the  giant  green  reeds,  and  but  little  life  was  there — 
perhaps  a  few  strangely-formed  fish,  and  certainly  a 
quaint  reptile,  which  has  received  the  hard  name  of  Archegosaurus,  of  whose  singular 
pointed  head  I  can  show  you  an  undoubted  likeness — a  strange  fact  you  may  think,  but  here 
it  is  as  it  was  discovered  in  1847,  hidden  in  the  depths  of  the  coal-mines  of  Saarbriick, 
near  Strasburg.  Some  remains  of  this  same  extraordinary  creature  have  also  been  discovered 
in  America  (page  14). 

The  question  suggests  itself,  if  there  was  no  living  being  alive  at  this  Carboniferous 
period,  how  can  the  wisest  teacher  of  the  present  day  possibly  know  what  the  world  was 


16  THE    VVOXDEELAND    OF    WORK. 

like,  or  be  even  sure  that  such  things  as  we  have  been  describing  ever  existed  at  all?  Ik 
seems  such  a  strange  lesson.  How  could  they  have  learnt  it?  Who  could  have  taught 
it  them?  No  one;  they  learnt  it,  as  you,  as  all  may  do,  of  the  coals.  Yet  the  coals,  in 
smell,  feel,  colour,  or  appearance,  do  not  give  the  slightest  clue  to  such  a  strange  and 
unlikely  history,  and  certainly  in  no  way  remind  us  of  stately  pines  or  waving  palms  or 
graceful  ferns.  Surely  this  solid  black  stony  substance  which  we  are  so  grateful  for,  and 
use  to  such  advantage,  never  formed  any  part  of  these  things.  Besides,  how  could  anybody 
know  of  their  origin  now,  even  if  it  had  been  so  in  the  darkness  of  time? 

The  answer  we  require  to  this  question  is  read  in  the  coals  themselves,  for  in  them 
hide,  as  any  of  us  must  have  seen,  seeds,  and  clear  impressions  of  leaves  and  fragments  of 
woody  stems.  Even  more  than  that,  for  in  the  depths  underground  are  sometimes  found 
the  entire  fossilised  trunks  of  just  such  trees  as  I  have  been  telling  of.  They  have  not 
seldom  been  discovered  clustering  together  in  the  very  centre  of  a  bank  of  coals.  The 
Equisetum — that  is,  the  giant  "mare's-tail"  of  geologists — has  been  thus  found,  standing 
quite  erect  and  free  of  its  surroundings.  Sir  Charles  Lyell  tells  of  a  bed  of  coal  in  South 
Staffordshire,  where,  within  a  quarter  of  an  acre,  there  were  discovered  no  less  than  seventy- 
three  stumps  of  trees,  all  their  roots  still  attached  to  and  forming  part  of  a  seam  of  coal 
ten  inches  in  thickness,  resting  on  a  layer  of  clay  two  inches  thick ;  and  under  all  this  was 
a  second  forest,  resting  on  a  bed  of  coal  from  two  to  five  feet  deep;  and  again  beneath 
this  lay  a  third  forest,  with  large  stumps  still  in  the  places  where  they  had  grown. 
Sir  Charles  mentions  also  that  when  in  Nova  Scotia  he  found  in  one  portion  of  some 
coal-fields,  which  were  1,400  feet  thick,  sixty-eight  different  levels,  presenting  evident 
traces  of  as  many  ancient  forests.  The  trunks  of  the  trees  still  showed  the  roots  which  had 
held  and  nourished  them  when  they  spread  fresh  and  green  over  the  fair  land. 

It  has  been  proved  by  actual  inspection  and  measurement  of  existent  coal-seams,  that 
in  the  region  now  known  as  the  United  States  the  forests  and  thickets  of  the  Carboniferous 
period  extended  over  more  than  190,000  miles;  in  Queensland  over  8,000;  over  1,000  in 
France;  and  500  in  Great  Britain.  But  very  much  higher  numbers  are  doubtless  to  be 
safely  inferred,  for  it  is  believed  that,  in  the  case  of  Great  Britain,  for  instance,  such 
forests  covered  all  the  ground,  extending  from  the  north  of  what  is  now  known  as 
Edinburgh  to  below  the  Wash,  from  the  hills  of  North  Wales  to  lands  stretching  far  beyond 
the  Channel  which  separates  us  from  France — for  these  same  geologists  tell  us  that  the 
Straits  of  Dover  did  not  exist  even  in  the  wonderful  "  tertiary "  period  which  they  picture. 
But  after  all,  how  was  it  that  these  varied  monster  trees,  these  wide-spreading  ferns 
and  rushes,  and  soft  green  mosses,  close-packed  and  luxuriant  as  we  know  they  grew  to 
be  in  the  damp  and  heat  and  sunshine,  ever  became  coal  ?  By  what  wonderful  process  did 
they  pass  from  their  soft  vegetable  nature  into  these  innumerable  layers  of  hard,  stony, 
black  substance,  without  which  so  many  homes  would  be  comfortless,  industry  come  to  a 
standstill,  and  our  Wonderland  of  Work  scarce  worth  visiting? 

Strange — nay,  marvellous — as  such  a  transformation  appears  to  be,  a  little  explanation 
shows  the  apparent  miracle  to  have  come  about  in  a  straightforward  and  natural  way 
enough,  for  these  dense  masses  of  thriving  vegetation,  springing  up  rapidly  in  a  close, 
moist  atmosphere,  as  rapidly  arrived  at  maturity;  then  quickly  faded,  withered,  and  died; 


FOEESTS    OF    THE    COAL    PEEIOD.  17 

first  the  leaves  were  scattered  in  many  a  shower,  then  their  fibrous  trunks  fell  among 
them,  while  the  soft,  swampy  ground  formed  a  rich-yielding  hotbed,  upon  which  they  soon 
decayed,  changing  into  a  mere  tangled  mass  of  vegetable  matter,  over  which  occasional  layers 
of  mud  or  clay  were  brought  and  left  by  retiring  waters.  It  is  evident  also  that  at  long 
and  uncertain  intervals  of  time  this  yielding,  rotting  surface  must  have  sunk  and  settled 
somewhat,  and  that  shallow  waters  washed  in,  bearing  great  deposits  of  various  sands  and 
pebbles,  which  dried  up  and  formed  hard  layers  of  stony  bands,  compressing  and  holding 
fast  the  vegetable  matter  beneath,  which  was  thus  covered  in  by  a  curious  process  of  natural 
chemistry,  and  slowly  but  surely  changed  into  what  we  call  coal,  as  surely  as  the  mud 
hardened  into  slate  or  shale  in  which  there  was  a  total  absence  of  ironstone,  while  the 
deposits  of  sand  and  pebbles  grew  into  rocks,  as  though  more  safely  to  hide  and  guard  the 
mysterious  transformation  going  on  in  the  Wonderland  beneath. 

That  there  should  be  less  doubt  of  the  "  how "  of  this  strange  beginning,  we  have  but 
to  examine  some  of  these  bits  of  the  once  soft  and  impressionable  "shale"  which  has  evidently 
pressed  on  the  decaying  mass  over  which  it  stole,  drying  so  rapidly  that  it  had  time  to 
catch  many  an  impress  of  lace-like  fern,  of  broken  twig,  or  ripe  dry  seed,  which,  once 
modelled,  was  never  to  be  effaced  from  the  surface  of  the  shale — where  we  see  it  now,  its 
tracery  or  modelling  as  clear  and  defined  as  though  it  had  been  taken  yesterday.  Yes,  as 
Charles  Kingsley,  in  reasoning  upon  this  strange  transformation  of  mere  vegetable  matter  into 
coal,  reminds  us,  we  may  find,  even  in  England,  every  gradation  between  coal  and  forest. 
We  may  see  the  forest  growing  in  its  bed  of  vegetable  mould.  We  may  see  the  forest  dead 
and  converted  into  peat,  with  stems  and  roots  in  it,  that  again  into  sunken  forests,  like 
those  to  be  seen  below  high-water  mark  on  almost  every  coast  on  this  island,  where  we 
may  find  gradations  between  them  and  beds  of  lignite,  or  wood-coal,  then  gradations  between 
lignite  and  common  or  bituminous  coal,  and  then  gradations  between  common  coal  and 
culm,  or  anthracite,  such  as  is  found  in  South  Wales  and  many  parts  of  the  world.  But, 
you  may  inquire,  how  is  it  possible,  according  to  known  natural  laws,  for  vegetable  matter 
to  become  coal  ?  The  chemist  answers  this  by  showing  that  wood  can  become  lignite,  or 
wood-coal,  by  parting  with  its  oxygen  in  the  shape  of  carbonic  acid  gas,  or  what  the  miners 
call  "  choke-damp/'  and  then  it  can  pass  into  ordinary  bituminous  coal.  This  explanation 
sounds  rather  scientific,  perhaps,  but  it  really  is  very  easy  to  understand ;  and  it  is  as  easy  to 
believe  that  what  can  be  done,  has  been  done,  in  this  great  Wonderland  of  Nature  which 
lies  hidden  under  our  feet.  Yet  that  all  doubt  should  be  set  at  rest  on  this  important 
matter,  experiments  have  been  made  to  demonstrate  plainly  the  process  by  which  these 
mineral  treasures  were  formed.  To  prove  how  this  transformation  originally  took  place, 
an  apparatus  was  used  by  which  a  mass  of  strongly  compressed  vegetable  matter,  placed 
in  an  envelope  of  moist  clay,  was  exposed  to  a  long-continued  warm  temperature.  The 
means  used  allowed  the  escape  of  the  gases  and  vapours  which  must  arise  from  such 
a  mass  of  vegetation,  but  to  escape  only  in  such  a  way  that  the  decomposition  of  the 
organic  matters  it  contained  took  place  in  a  warm  medium,  saturated  with  moisture 
and  under  a  pressure  which  effectually  prevented  the  separation  of  the  elements  of  which 
it  was  composed.  By  these  means  various  very  curious  results  were  soon  arrived  at. 
Thus  the  sawdust  of  different  kinds  of  wood  produced  substances  resembling  various 

D 


18  THE    WONDEELAND    OF    WOEK. 

kinds  of  coal  —  some  bright  and  shining,  others  of  a  duller,  harder  sort,  which  seems 
clearly  to  explain  the  reason  why  coals  are  so  often  found  in  strips  of  dull  or  shining 
veins,  varying  of  course  according  to  the  timbers  and  vegetables  of  which  they  were 
originally  formed. 

The  period  during  which  these  several  primary  forests  continued  to  grow,  to  flourish, 
and  to  decay  is  unknown,  except  as  far  as  can  be  realised  from  the  known  thickness  of 
various  seams  of  coal  in  different  parts  of  the  world.  At  Dudley,  in  the  Midlands,  there 
is  one  thirty-six  feet  thick ;  near  Ashby-de-la-Zouch,  one  of  twelve  feet  thick ;  near 
Edinburgh  is  a  ten-feet  seam,  and  in  Poland  one  of  forty-eight  feet.  How  often 
such  forests  were  overflowed  and  destroyed  by  the  waters  rising  and  spreading  over  a 
sinking  area,  and  how  often  they  again  sprang  into  being  and  life  and  beauty  when 
these  waters  receded,  and  the  ground  was  once  more  raised  and  levelled,  is  to  be  estimated 
by  the  number  of  "  seams  "  which  can  be  counted  in  a  section  of  the  coal-measures,  each 
seam  representing  the  growth  of  one  of  these  apparently  useless  forests,  which  no  man 
then  enjoyed,  but  which  are  now  storehouses  of  light  and  heat  and  resistless  steam-power. 

Of  course  all  these  precious  deposits  lay  at  first  in  flat  and  even  though  hidden  beds, 
on  Mother  Earth,  until  disturbed  more  or  less  by  certain  volcanic  movements  from  within, 
which  shook  and  changed  their  places  and  positions,  sending  some  lower  and  raising  others 
at  all  sorts  of  angles,  even  to  her  surface,  where  they  must,  we  should  imagine,  soon  have 
attracted  the  attention  of  mankind  ;  men,  however,  being  as  yet  mere  hunters,  and  subsisting 
on  fruits  as  well  as  on  what  wild  animals  they  could  slay,  cared  more  for  such  hard 
stones  and  flints  as  they  could  chip  into  weapons  or  hatchet-heads,  by  means  of  which  they 
would  kill  their  prey,  or  cut  down  the  timber  with  which  they  were  liberally  surrounded. 

The  woody  nature  of  coal  can  be  best  detected  in  lignite,  or  brown  coal,  found  in  such 
immense  quantities  in  America,  India,  China,  and  elsewhere,  and  which  we  owe  to  later 
periods,  when  forests  sprang  into  being  where  once  had  been  seas,  they  in  turn  leaving 
their  deposits  to  be  gradually  buried  in  the  sediments  of  other  lakes  and  seas,  which  have 
vanished  long  ages  since.  The  hard  dry  "  anthracite/'  of  which  there  are  immense 
quantities  in  Pennsylvania  and  other  lands,  are  generally  much  more  tumbled  about  in 
their  hidden  beds  than  the  soft  or  "  bituminous "  coal  we  burn  in  English  grates.  Yet 
they  were  certainly  formed  of  the  same  unlikely  materials  and  in  the  same  way — that 
is,  by  a  certain  amount  of  heat  from  below  and  pressure  from  above ;  but  in  the  anthracite 
regions  violent  volcanic  action  going  on  in  their  close  vicinity  must  at  some  far-off  time  or 
other  have  shaken  them  to  their  very  depths,  and  broken  and  unsettled  the  coal-measures, 
drying  and  hardening  their  veins,  by  draining  and  expelling  the  bitumen  and  oily  matters 
they  originally  contained. 

But  now  we  are  about  to  pass  from  the  mysterious  Carboniferous  period  of  its  history 
to  that  in  which  coal  first  concerns  our  own — not  so  very  long  since  as  you  might  imagine, 
for  while  timber  was  plentiful,  coal  had  but  little  chance  of  being  appreciated ;  and 
it  was  not  until  the  fourteenth  century  that  the  freemen  of  Newcastle,  finding  that  the 
people  of  Edinburgh  were  trading  in  it,  thought  of  obtaining  a  charter  giving  them  the 
sole  right  of  mining  and  selling  the  hitherto  almost  valueless  "coles"  that  lay  thick  in 
every  direction  about  their  feet.  Thus  arose  a  traffic  in  "sea-borne  cole" — tha  is,  coals 


EAELY  USE  OF  COALS  IN  ENGLAND. 


19 


"  borne "  by  ship  from  Newcastle  to  other  ports — but  the  prejudice  against  the  new  fuel 
was  so  strong  that  but  little  was  bought  or  sold  for  a  long  time.  Even  when  the  brewers, 
dyers,  and  other  workers  would  gladly  have  used  it,  as  wood  was  becoming  expensive, 
a  great  outcry  arose,  folk  declaring  that  its  fumes  poisoned  the  air,  and  would  certainly 
cause  a  pestilence  in  any  neighbourhood  where  it  was  consumed.  Then,  as  it  still  found 
more  customers  than  was  expected,  King  Edward,  urged  by  the  citizens,  issued  a 
proclamation  sternly  prohibiting  its  use  to  all  but  smiths,  and  not  only  fining  those  who 
persisted  in  burning  such  obnoxious  stuff,  but  sanctioning,  if  not  ordering,  the  destruction 


of   all    buildings    from  which   the  dreaded  coal-smoke  should  be 
seen  to  issue  in  defiance  of  law. 

This  is,  perhaps,  not  so  much  to  be  wondered  at  when  we 
remember  that  in  those  days  of  no  chimneys,  ordinary  people  sat  over  a  "  hearth-stone,"  on 
which  burnt  logs  of  wood,  or  even  peat,  the  smoke  of  which  curled  about  their  heads,  or 
passed  out  of  door  or  window  when  they  chanced  to  be  opened.  This,  of  course,  could  not 
be  possibly  endured  with  coal-smoke  ;  chimneys  had  to  be  built,  and  houses  altered  to  admit 
of  them,  which  necessity  of  itself  was  looked  upon  as  a  grievance.  As  one  of  the  time 
wrote  indignantly  :  "  There  are  old  men  yet  dwelling  in  the  village  where  I  remaine,  which 
have  noted  the  multitude  of  chimnies  latelie  erected,  whereas  in  their  young  daies  there  were 
not  above  two  or  three,  if  so  manie,  in  most  country  townes  of  the  realme,  the  religious 
houses  and  manour-places  of  their  lordes  alwaies  excepted ;  but  each  one  made  his  fire  against 
a  reredosse  "  (an  open  fireplace  without  a  grate) . 

In  the  early  days  of  Queen  Elizabeth  the  laws  remained  so  stringent  on  this  subject 
that  a  few  shiploads  of  coal  passing  from  Newcastle  to  London  represented  the  traffic  in  the 


20  THE    WONDERLAND    OP    WOEK. 

despised  treasure ;  and  when  later  on  its  value  and  general  uses  began  to  be  better  understood, 
we  read  that  it  might  never  be  burnt  during  the  sitting  of  Parliament,  lest  its  fumes  should 
affect  the  health  of  country  members,  used  to  pure  wood  or  charcoal.  Stowe  tells  us  of  "  the 
nice  dames  of  London,  who  would  not  come  into  any  house  or  roome  where  sea-coles  were 
burned,  nor  willingly  eat  of  meate  that  was  either  sod  or  roasted  with  sea-cole  fire ; "  though 
thirty  years  later  the  same  writer  bewails  that  through  the  great  "  scarcetie  of  wood,  the 
inhabitants  of  the  Citie  of  London/'  as  well  as  others,  "  are  constrained  to  make  their  fires  of 
sea-cole,  or  pit-cole,  even  in  the  chambers  of  honourable  personages,  and  through  necessitie, 
which  is  the  mother  of  all  arts,  they  have  of  verry  late  yeares  devised  the  making  of  iron,  the 
making  of  all  sorts  of  glasse  and  burning  of  bricke,  with  sea-cole  or  pit-cole."  Very  surprising ; 
yet  I  wonder  what  these  same  "  nice  dames/'  or  even  the  devisers  of  iron,  would  have  thought 
could  they  have  known  that  in  1877  no  less  than  18,250,110  tons  of  that  metal  would  be 
smelted  by  means  of  "  coles "  in  the  United  Kingdom,  and  that  its  mines  furnished 
134,610,763  tons,  to  be  used  for.  all  kinds  of  purposes,  in  many  manufactures,  railroads,  gas- 
works, steam  navigation,  mining  operations,  besides  our  own  and  many  of  our  foreign 
neighbours'  household  requirements  and  comforts.  Yet  as  .perhaps  this  large  number  of  tons 
may  give  but  a  poor  idea  of  the  quantity  of  "  coles "  they  represent,  let  me  quote  a 
lecturer  on  the  subject,  who  pictures  it  as  all  built  into  a  wall,  thirty  feet  wide  and  thirty 
feet  high,  which  if  commenced  in  London  might  reach  to  Rome.  Even  the  quantity, 
8,591,683  tons,  which  was  brought  into  London  in  1877  would  suffice  to  build  just  such  a 
wall,  reaching  the  fifty-two  miles  from  London  to  Brighton. 

But  to  return  to  those  old  times  for  a  few  minutes.  Let  us  note  that,  as  the  population 
increased,  and  as  the  various  forests,  from  being  constantly  stripped  and  cut  down,  began  to 
grow  bare  of  the  timber  which  had  served  their  every  purpose,  English  people  began  to  find 
that  "  sea-cole  "  must  be  endured ;  they  next  realised  it  was  a  very  useful  and  good  thing, 
that  did  not  kill  men  off  as  fast  as  might  have  been  expected.  Still,  its  progress  in  public 
favour  was  so  slow  that  it  was  only  when  steam-power  was  invented,  and  gaslight  became 
general  in  large  towns,  that  a  complete  revolution  took  place  in  industries  generally.  Mines 
were  opened  in  every  direction,  and  an  immense  and  profitable  coal  trade  was  developed. 
For  in  curious  contrast  to  those  few  solitary  vessels  trading  in  "  coles/'  which  were  carried  by 
pack-horses  to  the  ships  or  purchasers,  are  the  estimates  I  have  mentioned  of  the  quantity  of 
this  invaluable  mineral  now  used  throughout  the  world,  nearly  one-half  of  which  has  hitherto 
been  raised  from  the  mines  of  the  United  Kingdom.  The  most  important  "coal-fields,"  or 
"  basins/'  are  those  of  the  great  Northern  District,  including  all  the  "  fields  "  north  of  the 
Trent ;  those  of  the  Central  District,  including  Leicester,  Warwick,  Stafford,  and  Shropshire ; 
and  those  of  the  Western  District,  including  North  and  South  Wales,  Gloucester,  and  its 
neighbourhood.  In  all  these  "  fields  "  the  coal  is  found  stowed  safely  away  in  a  number  of 
layers,  or  beds — "  seams  "  I  should  term  them — varying  from  a  few  inches  to  many  feet 
in  thickness,  and  which  are  all  separated  from  each  other  by  the  layers  of  slaty  elay,  or 
"  shale,"  which  first  covered  them,  and  of  "  grit,"  a  coarse  hard  sandstone ;  while, 
underlying  these  strata,  a  bed  of  mountain  limestone  usually  extends,  often  stretching 
beyond  the  coal-field,  and  rising  to  the  surface  of  the  earth  about  it.  The  coals  themselves 
vary  in  kind  and  quality,  the  most  important  being  the  ordinary  bituminous  sorts,  which 


THE    POWEE    OF    COALS.  21 

contain  a  large  proportion  of  gas,  tar,  paraffin,  and  other  substances,  all  of  which  have 
their  uses  in  commerce. 

Among  the  varieties  of  this  kind  of  coal  is  the  "  cannel,"  "  candle,"  or  "  parrot "  coal,  so 
called  because  of  the  cheery  chattering  noise  it  produces,  while  giving  forth  a  very  bright 
flame.  Cannel  coal  is  very  much  patronised  by  the  gas-makers,  who,  I  am  told,  can  extract 
the  best  gas  from  this  particular  kind  of  "  black  diamond,"  which  is  not  very  black,  and  breaks 
into  dry  lumps,  somewhat  resembling  jet,  which  is  one  of  the  "  lignites."  Curious  things 
have  been  fashioned  out  of  it.  In  the  Exhibition  was  shown  a  great,  well-polished  cup, 
or  tazza,  sent  by  the  Turners'  Company,  as  a  specimen  of  their  skill  with  the  lathe  and  tools 
specially  ground  for  this  task.  No  doubt  it  was  a  very  difficult  piece  of  workmanship  to 
execute,  as  coal  is  so  brittle  that  without  the  utmost  care  it  would  fly  off  in  every  direction. 

Of  course  we  all  know  that  the  value  of  coal  depends  upon  its  combustible  and 
inflammable  properties.  Parliamentary  reports  tell  of  seven  millions  of  tons  being 
annually  consumed  by  the  gas  and  water  companies  of  the  United  Kingdom.  Of  its 
use  as  mere  household  fuel  I  need  not  speak,  but  as  our  great  manufactures  and  mining 
works  are  dependent  on  it  in  the  form  of  the  mighty  power  it  aids  in  producing,  I  may 
as  well  tell  something  of  the  strength  to  be  obtained  from  coal  as  represented  in  the 
never-tiring  steam-engine,  whose  very  essence  and  soul  it  is. 

A  thinker  who  has  written  on  this  subject  has  tested  the  power  of  steam,  "that  giant 
spirit  of  all  work,"  by  comparing  it  with  the  task  done  by  a  worker  on  an  ordinary 
treadmill.  Reckoning  that  a  man  weighing  150  Ibs.  (about  the  average)  lifts  his  own 
weight  10,000  feet  ir»  a  day — that  is,  he  raises  one  pound  1,500,000  feet  in  that  time.  It 
is  understood  also  that  a  certain  quantity  of  coal  in  the  form  of  steam  will  elevate  its 
own  weight 'a  certain  height.  We  can  easily  understand,  therefore,  that  if  one  bushel 
(representing  84  Ibs.)  of  coals  raises  any  object  say  one  foot  from  the  ground,  and  that 
in  some  of  the  improved  engines  this  "duty/'  as  bushel  measurement  is  called,  is 
equivalent  to  the  result  of  raising  125,000,000  Ibs.  one  foot  high,  or  one  pound  125,000,000 
feet  high,  the  division  by  84  gives  nearly  a  million  and  a  half  feet  as  the  work  of 
one  pound,  which  is  the  same  as  the  result  of  a  day's  steady  trot  on  the  treadmill. 
Therefore  one  pound  of  coal  would  represent  that  day's  work  and  wage,  if  such  undesirable 
work  were  paid  for  in  anything  but  weariness  and  shame. 

Our  authority  next  estimates  a  period,  often  a  lifetime,  of  hard  muscular  toil, 
lasting  for  twenty  years.  Reckoning  300  working  days  to  the  year;  that  represents 
altogether  6,000  days,  or  6,000  Ibs.,  or,  to  sum  it  up,  three  tons  of  coals  as  represented 
by  steam-power.  Therefore  we  can  but  come  to  the  conclusion  that  every  three  tons 
of  coal  is  the  convertible  representative,  or  rather  equivalent,  of  one  man's  lifelong  muscular 
activity — a  fact  which  must  make  us  feel  a  sort  of  wondering  respect  when  we  look  at 
a  solid  lump  of  coal,  every  cubic  yard  of  which  weighs  over  a  ton,  and  lemember  that 
a  block  some  twelve  feet  high,  the  base  of  which  is  only  a  yard  square,  has  more  "  work " 
in  it  than  many  a  man's  life-labour. 


WATEELOO    BEIDGE    BY    NIGHT. 


THE    LIGHTS    OF    OUR    GREAT    CITIES. 

' '  Prime  cheerer,  light ! 
Of  all  material  beings,  first  and  best." 

THOMPSON. 

TF   we    could   follow    a  very   large  quantity  of  coal  to  its  destination  we 

should  find  ourselves  at  the  gas-works,  where  soon  it  is  converted  into 
its  share  of  the  million  tons  or  more  which  we  are  told  are  annually  needed 
to  supply  our  great  cities  with  light. 

One  ton  of  good  coal,  which  represents,  as  we  all  know,  2,240  Ibs., 
produces  about  one  chaldron  of  coke,  twelve  gallons  of  tar,  twelve  gallons 
of  ammoniacal  liquor,  a  small  loss  (chiefly  in  water),  and  9,500  cubic  feet 
of  gas,  each  cubic  foot  weighing  514J  grains.  Now  to  see  how  all  this  is 
disposed  of  for  the  benefit  of  the  public. 

To  begin  with — The  gas,  or  carburetted  hydrogen,  which  is  extracted 
from  coal  by  distillation,  leaves  behind  it  that  grey  calcined  substance  well 
known  as  coke,  some  of  which  will  most  likely  be  used  in  the  blast 
furnaces  (it  takes  about  20  cwt.  to  make  a  ton  of  the  best  iron),  the  remainder 
being  sold  to  various  metal-workers,  or  broken  up  and  burnt  with  coals  in 
our  own  kitchen  fires. 

The  large  supply  of  coal  to  be  dealt  with,  most  likely  either  "  caking  "  or 
"parrot"  coal,  is  first  placed  in  "retorts/'  or  vessels  lined  with  fireclay;  they 
are  some  six  or  seven  feet  long,  one  and  a  half  broad,  and  one  high,  and  stand  nearly  five  feet 
from  the  ground,  being  built  in  with  firebricks.  Several  of  these  are  arranged  about  and 


24 


THE    WUJS'DERLA^D    OF    WORK. 


GAS-RETORTS. 


arched  over  in  such  a  way  that  they  can   be   heated   by  a   furnace   below,   the   flames   of 

which  surround  them  all  with  an  equally  intense  heat.    We  see  a  strange  sight  if  we  glance 

into  one    of   these   retorts,  should   it   be  opened  to   show  the  fierce  glowing  mass  within. 

But  as  the  supply  of  coal  is  put  in,  the  mouth  of  each  vessel  is  at  once  closed,  screwed 

fast,  and  made   air-tight  with  wet   clay.     Each   retort   has   an   iron   tube   projecting  from 

this  part  of  the  oven ;  these  tubes  are  intended  to  convey  the  steaming 

gases  and  matters  into  the  "  hydraulic  main/'  a  large   horizontal  iron 

pipe,  half  filled  with  water,  into   which   all   these  smaller   tubes   pass 

and   dip   deep.      This  receiver   is   connected   with   the  tar-well  below, 

into  which  well  all  the  tar  and  liquid  ammonia  that  condenses  from 

the   hot   gas   will   fall   and   settle.      Owing   to   their   greater   gravity 

they   can  by   means  of  a  simple  contrivance  be  drawn   off,  and   after 

certain  preparations  take  their  various  places  in  the  world  of  commerce, 

as  gas-tar,   naphtha,  ammonia,  and  other  marketable  things. 

For  the  present  let  us  follow  our  coal-gas,  which,  being  a  gas, 
instead  of  descending  into  the  tar-well,  where  it  would  be  soon 
stopped  by  a  dip  pipe  placed  on  guard,  ascends  and  passes  up  into 
a  curious  contrivance  called  the  "condenser."  This  consists  of  a 

series  of  curved  upright  pipes,  joined  at  the  top,  and  standing  in  pairs  on  a  kind  of 
large  cistern,  into  which  the  ends  of  each  pair  communicate.  From  the  centre  of  the 
bottom  of  each  pipe  a  metal  plate  passes  almost  to  the  bottom  of  the  cistern,  and  hinders 
the  hot  gas  from  at  once  passing  through  the  cistern  as  it  would  naturally  do.  Finding 
no  straightforward  way,  it  rushes  up  the  first  pipe  it  meets  with,  then  down  the  other 
side;  then  it  goes  flying  up  the  next  pipe  and  descends  again,  and  so  on  until  it  has 
travelled  through  them  all;  and  as  they  are  kept  very  cold,  either  by  means  of  air  or 
cold  water,  the  hot  gas  chills  on  its  way,  and  this  causes  it  to  leave  behind  all  the  liquid 
vapours  it  brought  with  it  from  the  retort.  These,  left  to  themselves,  thicken  and  condense, 
and  finally  fall  into  the  cistern  below,  from  which  they  are  passed,  by  means  of  a  pipe, 
down  to  the  tar-well,  already  containing  other  matters  of  their  kind. 

But  there  is  yet  another  objectionable  thing  still  clinging  about  and  contaminating 
our  gas ;  its  name  is  "  sulphuretted  hydrogen."  This  has  to  be  disposed  of,  as  it  is  a  most 
nauseous  and  unwholesome  gas,  and  owes  its  existence  to  the  iron  pyrites,  more  or  less  of 
which  is  to  be  found  in  almost  every  kind  of  coal. 

There  are,  I  believe,  two  ways  of  purifying  coal-gas,  the  usual  one  being  to  pass 
it  into  a  broad  perforated  iron  cylinder  through  a  pipe  which  is  lowered  into  an  air-tight 
reservoir  partly  filled  with  lime  and  water  kept  well  stirred  by  revolving  metal  arms.  Into 
this  "  cream  of  lime  "  the  gas  passes  from  the  holes  in  the  cylinder,  and  as  it  leaves  the 
mixture  thousands  of  angry  little  bubbles  rise  as  though  in  protest  at  such  an  intrusion; 
but  this  same  lime,  having  an  affinity  for  sulphur  and  other  matters,  attracts  and  retains 
the  things  which  it  is  so  desirable  to  get  rid  of,  and  the  purified  coal-gas  rises  lightly  to 
the  top  of  the  reservoir,  whence,  having  been  measured  by  a  "  station-meter/'  it  will  be 
passed  into  the  gasometer,  where  it  remains  prisoned  until  required.  These  huge  gasometers 
—or  gas-holders  rather,  for  they  do  not  measure  gas — are  usually  to  be  seen  in  the 


GASOMETERS    AND    GAS-WORKS. 


25 


neighbourhood  of  railway-stations,  where  they  are  built  for  the  convenience  of  storing 
coal.  You  will  see  their  peculiar  shape  by  referring  to  the  frontispiece  of  this  volume. 
Ingenious  constructions,  and  well  worthy  of  notice,  they  are  made  of  iron  plates 
firmly  riveted  together,  and  are  in  the  form  of  two  monster  metal  tumblers  —  one 


GAS-HOLDFUS,    KETOKTS,    AND    CONDENSEKS. 


always  slightly  smaller  and  fitting  into  the  other;  the  larger  or  under  one  being 
merely  a  round  open  tank,  of  cast  iron,  stone,  or  brick,  lined  with  fireclay,  and  nearly  filled 
with  water.  From  the  bottom  of  this  tank  a  pipe  ascends,  intended  to  admit  the  gas 
into  the  empty  space  left  above  the  surface  of  this  water;  and  the  upper  half  of  the 
gas-holder,  which  dips  into  the  lower  half  so  as  to  cut  off  all  external  air  passing  into 
the  upper  half,  holds  the  gas,  which  it  presses  down  and  so  squeezes  through  the  main 
pipe,  which  also  descends  through  the  water,  placed  there  to  retain  the  gas  in  the  vessel. 
When  the  gasometer  is  quite  down,  we  may  conclude  it  is  empty,  the  inside  of  its  top 
resting  on  the  water  with  which  the  under  half  is,  we  know,  filled.  As  the  new-made 


26 


THE    WONDERLAND    OF    WORK. 


gas  enters,  we  may  observe  the  huge  top  half,  which  is  held  and  suspended  by  chains 
and  weights  that  allow  of  its  moving  freely,  gently  rising  ;  and,  watching  it  until  it  is 
full,  we  shall  presently  see  its  entire  shape,  only  its  lower  rim  or  edge  is  not  to  be  seen, 
as  it  rests  a  few  inches  below  in  the  water,  where  it  is  held  by  the  shape  of  its  frame, 
which,  expanding  at  the  edge,  keeps  it  from  ascending  above  the  water  in  the  tank, 
and  allows  no  escape  of  the  gas  within.  When  night  comes  on,  and  some  of  the  contents 
of  the  gas-holder  is  required,  the  upper  half  is  slowly  worked  down  again  by  means  of 
its  own  weight,  and  this  as  it  descends  presses  on  the  gas  between  it  and  the  water, 
forcing  it  through  the  tube  and  into  the  main  pipe,  which  will  soon  send  it  streaming 
in  every  direction ;  for  we  know  how  everybody  rushes  at  once  to  "  light  the  gas/' 
wasting  few  thoughts  upon  what  a  wonderful  slave  it  is — ready  at  one  instantaneous 
touch  of  fire  to  spring  into  visible  existence,  and  beam  on  streets,  shops,  theatres,  churches, 
conveying  light  and  comfort  into  our  drawing-room,  or  heating  a  stove  in  our  kitchen. 


a.  Furnaces  and  Retorts ;  b.  Branch  Pipe  connecting  with  Main ;  c,  Main : 
d.  Condenser ;  e,  Washer ;  /,  Purifier ;  g.  Gas-holder. 

This  is  a  very  trying  time  for  the  attendants  of  the  big  gasometer,  as  great  care  and 
attention  are  required  to  supply  the  sudden  demand  for  light;  the  gas  has  to  be  evenly 
distributed  at  the  farthest  point  to  which  the  service-pipes  stretch,  as  to  the  nearest  street. 
To  do  this,  the  gas  stored  in  these  big  cylinders  must  receive  a  certain  "  pressure,"  no 
more  or  less,  to  judge  of  which  requires  experience  and  care. 

Inquiring  into  the  history  of  coal-gas,  we  find  it  first  mentioned  about  two  hundred  years 
ago  as  a  strange  curiosity,  which  was  chanced  upon  by  Robert  Clayton,  Bishop  of  Cork,  who,  it 
appears,  first  distilled  a  few  coals,  and  obtained  gas  from  them.  He  wrote  :  "  I  kept  this  spirit 
[gas]  in  bladders,  and  when  I  had  a  mind  to  divert  strangers  or  friends,  I  have  frequently 
taken  one  of  these,  pricked  a  hole  therein  with  a  pin,  and  compressing  gently  the  bladder  near 
the  flame  of  a  candle  till  it  once  took  fire,  it  would  then  continue  flaming  until  all  the  spirit  was 
compressed  out  of  the  bladder,  which  was  the  more  surprising  because  no  one  could  discern  any 
difference  in  appearance  between  these  bladders  and  those  filled  with  common  air."  No  doubt 
the  good  Bishop's  strange  experiment  was  much  talked  about  and  puzzled  over  at  the  time,  but 
though  it  was  communicated  to  the  "  Royal  Society  "  as  worthy  that  august  body's  notice,  we 
do  not  hear  that  any  particular  effort  was  made  to  forward  the  discovery  as  a  matter  of  general 
importance,  though  later  on  some  few  believed  in  the  possibility  of  illumining  houses,  if  not 
streets  or  towns,  with  this  new  light.  Others  laughed  at  and  ridiculed  the  very  notion  ;  many 
learned  and  scientific  men  opposed  it,  even  were  it  practicable,  on  the  ground  of  the  danger 
and  expense  such  an  unlikely  method  of  obtaining  light  must  involve.  Yet  they  were  all  in 


WILL    MUEDOCK'S    HAT.  27 

the  wrong1,  as  modern  experience  has  proved  in  the  most  satisfactory  manner  that  as  yet,  at 
any  rate,  whatever  follows,  gas  has  so  far  provided  the  cheapest  and  safest  illumination. 

Nearly  the  first  authentic  notice  we  have  of  the  gas  of  pit-coal  being  practically 
applied  for  lighting  is  in  connection  with  William  Murdoch,  engineer  to  the  celebrated 
firm  of  Boulton  and  Watt,  of  Old  Soho.  He  was  a  clever  and  ingenious  man,  about 
whom  I  must  tell  an  interesting  anecdote. 

One  day  a  poorly-attired  young  Scotchman  applied  at  the  Old  Soho  Foundry  foi 
work.  He  chanced  to  be  shown  into  the  office  of  one  of  the  heads  of  the  firm,  who  was  a 
shrewd  observer  of  character,  and  so  thorough  a  man  of  business,  that  Boswell  styled  him 
an  "  iron  king."  A  shabby  young  Scotchman  in  search  of  a  situation  was  no  uncommon 
visitor  at  the  foundry  in  Birmingham,  and  as  there  chanced  to  be  small  need  for  the 
stray  services  of  inexperienced  youths,  this  one  was  very  soon  summarily  dismissed. 

"  No  vacancy,  young  man  " — words  soon  said ;  but  though  spoken  in  kindly  tones,  they 
fell  on  the  shabby  stranger's  heart  like  lead.  He  and  his  were  so  poor,  and  had  been  so 
hopeful,  and  he  hud  made  such  efforts  to  get  at  Mr.  Boulton,  all  for  nothing.  The  busy  head 
of  the  firm  had  scarcely  even  looked  at  him,  only  flung  those  hard  words  over  his  shoulder, 
"  No  vacancy."  The  young  fellow,  loth  to  accept  the  verdict,  stood  nervously  twiddling 
his  hat  for  such  a  long  time,  that  Mr.  Boulton  at  last  turned  impatiently  to  survey  the 
troublesome  petitioner,  perhaps  to  give  him  a  more  decided  dismissal.  At  any  rate,  he  turned 
and  fixed  his  eyes  inquiringly,  not  on  the  youth's  disconsolate  face,  but  upon  the  hat  he  was 
all  unconsciously  twiddling  about  and  smoothing  every  way  with  his  red  and  awkward  fingers. 

What  a  hat  it  was !  smooth  and  hard  and  black  and  as  round  as  a  metal  pipe. 
People  in  those  days  wore  beaver,  and  there  was  not  the  same  variety  of  head-gear  as 
now,  or  perhaps  Mr.  Matthew  Boulton  might  not  have  been  so  struck  by  this  one  as  to 
inquire  what  it  was  made  of,  instead  of  repeating  his  last  unwelcome  remark,  even 
holding  out  his  hand  for  the  peculiar  article  that  had  so  suddenly  excited  his  wonder- 
ment. We  can  fancy  how  that  bashful  Scotch  lad  blushed  up  to  the  roots  of  his  hair, 
partly  with  mortified  pride,  partly  with  honest  satisfaction  at  the  evident  interest 
taken  in  his  work  by  this  great  "  iron  king/'  for  the  hat  really  was  his  work — his  very 
own;  made  of  wood  and  turned  in  a  lathe,  because  he  could  not  afford  to  buy  anything 
new  of  the  kind,  and  he  had  been  told  he  ought  to  wear  a  "  top "  hat,  not  a  cloth 
"bonnet,"  when  he  came  to  ask  for  a  situation  at  the  big  forge.  Not  that  he  had  ever 
seen  or  heard  of  a  wooden  hat  before,  but  he  had  nothing  but  wood  to  make  one  of. 
Yes,  it  had  been  rather  difficult  to  turn  in  a  lathe,  he  allowed ;  besides,  before  he  could 
make  the  hat  he  had  to  make  a  lathe.  No  one  showed  him  how  to  do  that,  but  he 
had  managed  it  somehow ;  the  lathe  worked  pretty  well,  he  thought,  though  he 
meant  to  improve  it  yet.  Mr.  Boulton  listened  patiently  to  the  lad's  simple  history 
of  the  ugly  black  hat  and  the  lathe,  to  him  a  record  of  difficulties  overcome  by 
patience  and  ingenuity;  then,  instead  of  repeating  "No  vacancy,"  he  engaged  the  over- 
joyed youth  to  fill  some  lowly  position  where  he  could  earn  a  whole  seventeen  shillings 
a  week.  The  shrewd  "  iron  king "  had  made  no  mistake ;  the  ingenious  head  and  the 
ready  hand  were  there,  suited,  as  he  thought,  for  greater  tasks;  for  we  next  hear  of  this 
same  young  William  being  engaged  in  fitting  and  rectifying  the  large  engines  for  which 


gg  THE    WONDEELAND    OF    WOEK. 

"  Old  Soho "  was  famous.  The  day  came  when  his  kindly  master  could  say,  "  We  want 
more  Murdochs."  It  was  this  same  William  Murdoch,  by  that  time  holding  a  good 
position  in  the  firm,  who,  in  1792,  first  thought  of  utilising  pit-coal  for  the  lighting  of 
his  house  and  offices  at  Redruth,  in  Cornwall.  He  made  plenty  of  experiments,  no  doubt, 
before  he  was  able  to  imprison  its  gases  in  a  gasometer,  from  which  he  carried  pipes  to  the 
different  apartments,  tubes  with  holes  in  them  that  could  be  opened  or  closed  at  will. 

As  to  the  ammoniacal  liquid  which  is  one  of  the  results  of  gas-making,  we  meet  it  first 
being  emptied  by  large  barge-loads  into  the  iron  tanks  of  chemical  works.  It  is  then  put 
in  vessels,  where  by  means  of  heat  it  is  volatilised,  and  passing  through  large  "  worms," 
condenses  in  the  cistern  in  which  it  is  received.  It  is  next  treated  with  hydrochloric 
acid,  and  the  solution  thus  obtained  passed  on  to  iron  pans,  in  which  it  slowly  boils 
until  it  is  ready  to  crystallise;  then  it  is  run  into  coolers,  where  it  ultimately  forms  into 
crystals  of  crude  salt  of  ammonia,  which  is  afterwards  refined  by  a  variety  of  processes, 
the  most  important  of  which  is  "sublimation,"  to  effect  which  the  salt  is  slowly  dried, 
and  then  placed  in  iron  vessels  with  dome-like  covers.  As  the  heat  reaches  it,  the  salt 
volatilises  and  rises  in  the  cover,  gradually  encrusting  it  with  crystals  of  sal-ammoniac, 
which  can  be  removed  in  a  cake  and  broken  up  as  required  by  the  various  workers  who 
use  it,  especially  galvanisers  of  iron,  and  tin-plate  workers.  A  great  quantity,  we  are  told, 
is  exported  to  Russia,  where  it  is  used  by  the  peasants  instead  of  'common  salt. 

One  other  use  this  extract  of  coal  has,  which  you  will  never  guess  at,  unless  to  help 
your  fancy  you  sniff  at  a  bottle  of  strong  smelling-salts,  and  then  you  have  it  in  the 
shape  of  carbonate  of  ammonia.  A  great  quantity  is  also  used  in  dye-works,  ammonia 
having  a  peculiar  effect  upon  vegetable  colours.  Not  only  is  it  useful  in  itself,  but  our 
health  as  well  as  busy  commerce  would  flourish  badly  without  it.  A  small  portion  is  in  the 
air  we  breathe  and  in  the  rain-water  that  falls  about  us — in  fact,  life  could  scarcely  exist 
in  its  absence.  Of  course  it  was  known  long  ages  before  gas  was  heard  of.  Its  very 
name  is  said  to  be  derived  from  its  manufacture  in  a  district  in  Lybia  where  Jupiter 
Ammon  was  worshipped.  In  those  days  it  was  procured  by  heating  animal  refuse,  though 
it  was  also  obtained  from  the  distillation  of  deer's  horns,  reminding  one  of  that  pungent 
preparation  of  it  still  known. as  spirits  of  hartshorn. 

Now  that  we  have  seen  how  from  our  ton  of  coals  we  get  coke,  gas,  and  ammonia, 
let  us  inquire  what  has  become  of  the  ten  gallons  of  tar  which  have  to  be  accounted  for. 
If  we  ask  of  some  skilful  chemist  the  nature  and  uses  of  this  unpromising-looking 
mess,  he  will  most  likely  tell  us  that  it  is  "a  highly  complex  mixture  of  various 
compounds  of  carbon  and  hydrogen."  Very  true,  no  doubt,  but  this  does  not  explain  to 
us  what  we  want  to  know — namely,  what  place  does  it  fill  in  our  Wonderland,  where  coal 
and  its  other  constituents  hold  such  important  positions  that  each  is  worth  realising? 
Strange  to  say,  at  a  not  very  distant  time  it  had  no  place  worth  mentioning.  This 
unavoidable  residue  of  strong-smelling,  treacly  coal-tar  was  looked  upon  by  all  owners  of 
gas-works  as  mere  noxious  refuse  they  would  be  glad  to  get  rid  of  on  any  terms.  Yet  now 
this  hitherto  objectionable  "  waste "  is  proved  to  be  very  valuable.  Carefully  analysed, 
it  has  already  produced  over  fifty  distinct  and  useful  things.  Among  the  most  important 
of  these  we  may  reckon  "benzol,"  from  which,  by  further  treatment,  are  obtained 


THE    USES    OP    COAL-TAE.  29s 

brilliant  crystals  which  yield  the  aniline  dyes  so  useful  to  our  several  workers,  and  con- 
cerning which  we  shall  have  more  to  learn  presently.  Its  uses,  when  in  quite  a  crude 
state,  we  are  most  of  us  well  aware  of,  for  we  have  both  seen  and  smelt  it  on  boats, 
wooden  walls,  and  palings,  when  on  our  country  walks.  Touched  by  the  same  chemist's 
wand,  it  is  transformed,  and  the  sticky  black- brown  mass  is  dissolved  into  various  things, 
such  as  naphtha,  heavy  or  creosote  oil  which  serves  for  the  preservation  of  railway  sleepers ; 
and  ordinary  pitch,  the  appearance  and  smell  of  which  most  townspeople  have  become 
well  acquainted  with  through  the  asphalte  pavements  and  roofings,  and  which  we  can  find 
by  tubfuls  in  any  shipbuilder's  yards,  where  timbers  and  ropes  seem  alike  saturated  with 
this  black  and  sticky  mess  used  to  make  them  waterproof. 

Naphtha,  which  has  several  names,  has  also  many  uses  in  our  Wonderland.  Besides 
furnishing  its  workers  with  a  pure,  clear  light,  it  acts  as  a  solvent  for  fatty  or  resinous 
substances,  as  also  sulphur  and  phosphorus.  Chemists  use  it  for  the  preservation  of 
certain  metals  and  other  substances;  but  it  is  especially  of  service  in  the  manufacture  of 
india-rubber  and  gutta-percha — two  articles  now  of  the  greatest  importance  in  commerce, 
for  of  them  are  made  numberless  objects,  from  a  baby's  teething-pad  to  the  coating  of 
the  Atlantic  cable,  from  a  coat  or  a  bed  to  an  elastic  band  to  fit  our  finger.  Then 
comes  paraffin,  another  production  of  coal-tar;  its  curious  name  is  made  up  from  Latin 
words  which  signify  that  it  has  little  or  no  affinity  for-  other  substances.  Its  discovery 
was  singular,  and  we  owe  it,  as  well  as  many  other  things,  to  "a  man  with  eyes/1 
who  one  day,  peering  about  in  a  coal-mine  at  Alfreton,  in  Derbyshire,  chanced  to  notice 
that  a  thick,  oily-looking  fluid  was  dribbling  from  the  cracks  in  the  roof.  The  attention 
of  a  skilful  chemist  having  been  drawn  to  this  strange  substance,  he  distilled  two  useful 
things  from  it — the  first  a  light  oil  fit  for  burning  in  lamps ;  the  second  a  thicker,  coarser 
oil  suitable  for  lubricating  machinery.  Both  of  these  found  a  ready  sale,  yet  after  a 
time  the  original  supply  began  to  run  short.  Fortunately  thinkers  had  come  to  the  con- 
clusion that  this  paraffin  was  produced  through  the  distillation  of  coal  by  subterranean  heat ; 
natural  process  was  imitated,  and  large  quantities  of  the  same  kind  of  liquid  easily  made. 

One  curious  sight  we  chance  upon  in  the  neighbourhood  of  these  massive-looking 
gas-holders — that  is  the  filling  or  inflating  of  a  great  baggy  mass  of  soft  materials  which 
are  gradually  assuming  the  graceful  form  of  a  balloon  intended  to  ascend  this  afternoon. 
We  are  told  that,  to  save  the  trouble  and  expense  of  making  pure  hydrogen  gas  for  the 
purpose,  as  once  had  to  be  always  done,  our  aeronauts  are  very  glad,  when  it  can  possibly 
be  managed,  to  obtain  the  large  supply  of  gas  they  require  from  the  nearest  gasometer,  from 
whence  it  is  conveyed  by  means  of  long  tubes,  which  pass  straight  from  it  to  the  mouth 
or  neck  of  the  balloon.  If  we  examine  the  as  yet  half -prostrate  object,  we  can  see  that 
it  is  fashioned  out  of  long  strips  of  stuff,  which  are  sewn  strongly  together,  and  then  made 
air-tight  by  means  of  a  coating  of  caoutchouc.  A  valve  is  fitted  to  the  top  or  roof  of  the 
contrivance,  worked  by  aid  of  a  spring,  having  a  long  rope  which  reaches  to  the  car, 
by  means  of  which  valve  the  aeronaut  can  lower  his  balloon  by  letting  off  some  of  the  gas, 
which  is  now  slowly  but  surely  distending  its  huge  round  body,  and  displaying  its  showy 
colours  and  inscription,  as  well  as  stretching  the  strong  rope  network  which  covers  it  all 
over  and  supports  the  car  which  is  to  carry  both  passengers  and  ballast — that  is,  the  sacks 


80  THE    WONDERLAND    OF    WORK. 

of  sand,  quantities  of  which  will  be  thrown  overboard  should  this  strange  vessel  be  in 
danger  of  touching  anything,  or  seem  likely  to  land  in  any  undesirable  or  dangerous 
place.  As  the  silken  globe  begins  to  fill  with  gassy  life  it  shows  symptoms  of  an  inclination 
to  be  off  on  its  travels;  but  it  is  held  fast  enough  as  yet  by  many  ropes,  and  we  cannot 
help  noticing  what  a  very  different  thing  a  balloon  down  here  is,  to  what  it  appears  to  be 
when  it  is  sailing  far  overhead,  sometimes  such  a  mere  speck  in  the  horizon  that  we  scarcely 
see  it;  yet  an  ordinary  balloon  with  power  to  carry  three  of  us  up  into  cloudland,  with  all 
the  ballast  and  other  things  required  for  our  "sky"  journey,  would  weigh,  silken  skin, 
stout  network,  and  car,  somewhere  about  '630  Ibs.  It  would  be  almost  fifty  feet  high, 


FILLING    A    BALLOON    AT    THE    GAS-WUUK.8. 


thirty-five  in  diameter,  and  contain  about  2,250  cubic  feet  in  capacity,  though  we  are 
informed  that  it  is  purposely  never  quite  filled,  because  the  atmospheric  pressure,  diminishing 
as  it  ascends,  allows  the  gas  to  dilate,  and  unless  there  were  room  for  this  to  expand  the 
whole  contrivance  must  burst,  and  death  and  desolation  ensue.  Such  an  accident  has  been 
known  to  happen  even  before  the  balloon  was  fairly  started  and  clear  of  the  gas-holder.  We 
can  fancy  the  consternation  of  the  onlookers  at  such  a  catastrophe. 

Just  about  a  hundred  years  ago  the  first  gas  balloon  ascended  in  Paris.  Hydrogen 
gas,  or,  as  it  was  then  termed,  "  inflammable  air/'  had  lately  been  discovered  by  Cavendish, 
but  its  powers  were  scarcely  realised,  when  a  Dr.  Charles  applied  it  to  inflating  balloons, 
believing  it  to  be  much  lighter  than  the  hot  air  that  had  hitherto  been  tried.  Finding  his 
first  experiments  successful,  he  at  once  set  to  work  to  construct  a  larger  balloon  of  taffeta. 
From  what  we  read,  the  inflation  of  that  mysterious  balloon  must  have  been  a  most 
exciting  affair,  very  different  to  the  matter-of-fact  business  we  are  watching  here  to-day, 


THE    FIEoT    GAS    BALLOON. 


81 


under  the  shadow  of  the  huge  gasometer  so  silently  doing  its  work.  First  the  gas  had  to 
be  provided,  and  the  supply  of  hydrogen  was  no  small  or  inexpensive  matter — 1,125  Ibs. 
of  iron  and  560  Ibs.  of  sulphuric  acid  being  found  necessary  to  compose  the  gas  required 
to  inflate  this  wonderful  object,  which  after  all  could  scarcely  lift  a  weight  of  22  Ibs. 
The  hydrogen,  let  me  here  mention,  was  produced  by  placing  water  and  some  sulphuric  acid, 
shavings  of  iron,  and  zinc  in  different  casks,  which  all  communicated  by  means  of  tubes  with 
a  central  cask,  the  open  end  of  which  rested  in  a  copper  pan  full  of  water ;  the  required 
gas  being  produced  by  the  action  of  the  water  and  sulphuric  acid  upon  the  zinc  and  iron, 
which  gas  in  passing  through  the  central  vessel  full  of  water  would  throw  off  all  extraneous 
matter,  and  be  quite  pure  when  it  passed  into  the  balloon  by  means  of  a  tube  from  the  vat. 


THE   ESCAPE   OP   A   BALLOON. 


When  the  partial  filling  of  the  balloon  had  been  achieved — a  process  which  took  over 
four  hours — it  was  carried  to  its  starting-point  in  triumph,  fastened  on  a  cart,  the 
greatest  anxiety  being  lest  the  gas  with  which  it  had  been  charged  should  escape  on  the 
way.  It  was  removed  at  night,  preceded  by  a  torchlight  procession,  and  followed  by  an 
armed  and  mounted  patrol  to  keep  off  the  thronging  crowd.  Once  safe  at  its  journey's 
end,  it  was  fixed  and  held  fast  by  strong  cords,  chains,  and  iron  rings  set  deep  in  the 
ground;  then,  in  the  presence  of  many  scientific  men,  a  final  inflation  took  place  amid 
the  wondering  stare  of  thousands  of  people,  kept  in  order  by  troops,  who  guarded  the 
avenue  on  all  sides.  All  being  ready,  a  cannon  gave  the  signal,  the  restraining  cords  were 
unfastened,  and,  to  the  delight  and  wonderment  of  the  assembly,  off  shot  the  balloon  right 
up  and  away  into  the  skies,  followed,  we  can  fancy,  by  a  long  irrepressible  cheer  from 
the  multitudes  present.  Up  and  up  it  sailed,  soon  to  be  lost  in  a  cloud,  then  re-appearing, 
to  be  missed  in  still  higher  space.  Never  surely  has  balloon  caused  such  excitement  from 
first  to  last ;  yet  it  was  a  mere  baby  to  the  one  now  before  us,  being  only  twelve 


82  THE    WONDEELAND    OP    WORK. 

feet  in  diameter,  thirty-eight  feet  round,  and  capable  of  containing  943  cubic  feet  of  gas. 
The  weight  of  the  whole  concern  was  but  25  Ibs.  In  these  days  we  should  consider  it  a 
mere  toy. 

In  a  very  short  time  this  admired  silken  marvel  had  sailed  out  of  sight  of  any 
amount  of  staring.  It  travelled  away  bravely  until  it  came  to  the  open  country  far  beyond 
Paris,  where  some  peasants  were  busy  at  their  harvest  work;  and  here,  because  of  the 
expansion  of  the  gas,  with  which  it  had  been  too  thoroughly  filled,  the  wonderful  thing 
suddenly  burst,  and  dropped  shattered  and  "  dead  "  on  the  ground — a  natural  enough  sequence. 
Yet  who  can  paint  the  horror  and  affright  of  these  superstitious  peasants  when  this 
fearful  thing  from  the  skies  fell  among  them  ?  What  they  took  it  for  I  do  not  know ; 
but  some  shrieked  and  fled  for  dear  life;  others  ran  at  the  enemy  with  flails,  stones, 
and  pitchforks,  and  beat,  mauled,  and  hammered  at  the  poor  thing,  especially  when  they 
found  it  did  not  resist  their  onslaught.  At  last  they  tied  it  to  a  horse's  tail  and 
dragged  it  about  in  the  mud ;  so  that  when  the  disappointing  and  disheartening  news  of 
its  accident  reached  Paris,  and  search  was  made  for  its  remains,  only  a  few  torn  fragments 
could  be  discovered.  And  the  peasants  boasted  loudly  of  their  courage  in  destroying  it. 

As  nothing  more  could  be  done  in  this  sad  case,  the  Government  published  a  long  paper 
for  the  benefit  of  ignorant  country  folks,  solemnly  warning  them  against  "  kidnapping  air 
balloons/'  and  bidding  them  not  to  be  again  afraid  of  any  "black  moons "  they  might 
see  in  the  sky,  as  they  would  only  be  silken  bags  filled  with  gas,  and  quite  harmless. 
But  as  this  first  attempt  served  to  show  that  gas  would  carry  up  balloons,  other  "  moons  " 
were  therefore  soon  fashioned,  some  of  which  were  great  advances  on  the  first  one;  yet 
it  was  some  time  before  any  one  dreamed  of  risking  his  life  by  going  up  with  such  a 
thing.  The  first  experiment  of  the  kind  was  tried  upon  a  sheep  and  some  pigeons, 
which  were  safely  carried  about  1,700  feet,  being  secured  in  a  dangling  osier  cage. 
The  poor  things  must  have  felt  some  uneasiness  at  their  strange  heavenward  journey. 

If  you  ask,  as  did  the  people  of  those  days,  why  does  gas  poured  and  fastened  tight  in 
this  silken  bag  carry  it  up  skywards  where  nothing  else  would  take  it,  I  must  answer  by 
quoting  a  certain  ancient  principle  of  Archimedes,  which  states  that  "  every  body  plunged 
into  a  liquid  loses  a  portion  of  its  weight  equal  to  the  weight  of  the  fluid  it  displaces." 
Thus,  a  body  plunged  into  water  is  acted  upon  by  two  forces — its  own  weight,  which  would 
sink  it,  and  a  resistance,  which  bears  it  up.  This  applies  to  air  as  well  as  water,  to  gas  as 
well  as  to  liquids.  Any  object  weighed  in  the  air  does  not  now  weigh  its  own  weight, 
but  that  weight  minus  the  air  its  presence  displaces.  If  that  same  object,  being  heavier 
than  the  air  it  displaces,  be  thrown  into  the  air,  it  falls  at  once.  If  it  is  of  equal  weight  it 
simply  floats,  but  if  lighter  it  rises  until  it  meets  air  of  less  density  than  itself.  Balloons, 
being  light  air-tight  material  filled  with  hot  gas,  rise  because  they  are  lighter  than  the 
air  they  displace. 

It  is  night  when  we  leave  the  huge  gasometer,  and  as  we  pass  through  noisy  crowded 
streets,  full  of  light  and  life  and  business,  we  cannot  help  considering  what  a  dreary  change 
it  would  be  if  we  had  to  submit  to  the  lighting  arrangements  of  a  few  centuries  ago, 
for  in  those  days,  or  rather  nights,  the  streets  of  cities  were  illumined  only  by  a  few 
straggling  horn  lanterns,  which  the  principal  householders  were  obliged  to  hang  before  their 


STEEET-LIGHTING. 


33 


doors;  warned  to  this  duty  by  ancient  watchmen,  who  trotted  round  the  parishes,  stopping 
before  doors  and  calling  out,  "  Lanthorne  and  a  whole  candell  light !  Hange  out  youre  lights 
heare !  "  which  the  grudging  citizen  must  unwillingly  do,  or  be  fined.  But  the  spare  rush 
"  candells "  gave  a  poor  unsteady  light  at  their  best,  and  usually  had  all  nickered  out  in  a 
short  time.  The  darkness  that  ensued  allowed  of  so  much  licence  and  disturbance  that  it  was 
considered  a  very  great  advance  when  a  few  oil -lamps  gradually  begun  to  twinkle  here  and 
there.  These  were  at  last  adopted  in  all  the  leading  thoroughfares  of  great  towns,  while 
instead  of  the  expense  falling  on  private  persons  continually  grumbling  at  this  grievance,  it 
was  defrayed  by  a  regular  lighting-rate,  levied  on  all  houses. 


THE    UNEXPECTED   DESCENT    OF    THE    FIRST    BALLOON. 

The  establishment  of  single  watchmen,  one  of  whose  duties  it  was  to  call  out  the  hours, 
was  at  one  time  general  in  London,  and  took  its  rise  in  Germany.  Montaigne,  in  1580, 
wrote  that — "  The  watchmen  went  about  the  houses  in  the  night-time,  not  so  much  on  account 
of  thieves  as  on  account  of  fires  and  other  alarms.  When  the  clocks  struck,  the  one  was 
obliged  to  call  out  aloud  to  the  other,  and  to  ask  what  it  was  o'clock,  and  then  to  wish  him  a 
good-night."  Previously  to  these  watchmen  who  patrolled  the  streets,  men  were  stationed  on 
steeples  by  day  as  well  as  by  night,  who,  every  time  the  clock  struck,  were  obliged  to  give  a 
proof  of  their  vigilance  by  blowing  a  horn.  The  Chinese  are  said  to  have  been*  accustomed,  as 
€.irly  as  the  ninth  century,  tt>  have  men  posted  on  towers,  who  announced  the  hours  of  the 
day  and  night  by  striking  upon  a  suspended  board.  In  St.  Petersburg  men  were  formerly 
stationed  in  various  parts  of  the  city  to  tell  the  hours  by  beating  on  iron  plates. 

English  street-lamps  were  in  time  improved.  At  first  they  swung  on  ropes  or 
rough  wooden  beams,  but  later  those  in  our  grander  streets  were  fixed  to  iron  lamp-posts 
made  for  the  purpose,  whilst  those  in  some  of  the  doors  of  the  houses  in  the  "  West  End " 


THE    WONDERLAND    OP    WOEK. 


squares  had  often  very  elaborate  workmanship  of  wrought-iron  about  them.  At  many  of  the 
gates  of  the  most  aristocratic  old  mansions  we  can  still  see  the  large  trumpet-like  extinguisher, 
placed  handy  for  the  extinction  of  torches,  which  were  carried  on  a  dark  night  by  footmen 
standing  behind  carriages,  and  flourished  as  a  kind  of  protection  against  any  evil-doers  who 

might  be  abroad  annoying  ordinary  wayfarers,  but  quiet  when 

"  Afar  they  mark  the  flambeau's  bright  approach, 
And  shun  the  shining  train  and  golden  coach." 

Some  of  these  solemn  old  neighbourhoods  were  for  long  in 
semi-darkness,  for  their  noble  inhabitants  declined  to  avail  them- 
selves of  the  benefit  of  gaslight  while  they  could  enjoy  the  sober 
advantage  of  watching  the  dismal  oil-lamps  of  their  predecessors, 
and  be  nightly  roused  by  the  rattle  or  the  cracked  voice  of  some 
passing  watchman,  who  continually  disturbed  their  rest  to  tell  them 
"  what's  o'clock."  Yet  it  must  have  been  rather  a  selfish  pleasure 
for  those  snug  in  bed  to  hear  a  doleful  announcement  outside  of 
"  past  two,  and  a  windy  morning."  Gas  only  stole  into  Grosvenor 
Square  in  1842,  though  Pall  Mall  had  set  the  example  as  far 
back  as  1807,  shortly  after  which  the  citizens  ventured  upon 
lighting  up  Bishopsgate  Street  in  the  same  manner,  in  spite  of 
repeated  warnings  as  to  the  fearful  consequences  which  must 
ensue;  for  many  believed  and  feared  that  when  a  number  of 
gas-fires  were  lighted,  those  stray  folks  who  were  not  poisoned 
by  the  noxious  vapours  must  all  be  blown  up  by  the  many  ex- 
plosions sure  to  follow  in  every  direction. 

But  there  is  another  sort  of  light  now  rapidly  gaining  ground, 
and  which  is  produced  by  the  aid  of  electricity.  It  is  especially 
adapted  for  large  buildings,  lighthouses,  docks,  ships,  and  open 
spaces  which  require  thorough  illumination — such  as  the  broad 
Thames  Embankment  in  London,  the  new  Albert  Docks,  where 
Siemen's  lamp  lights  up  their  miles  of  wharves  and  quays,  and 
the  Place  de  POpera  in  Paris,  where  it  can  be  seen  to  perfec- 
tion, producing  a  kind  of  artificial  daylight  of  the  most  brilliant 
kind,  and  before  which  ordinary  gas  pales  to  insignificance. 

The  apparatus  used  consists  of  a  machine  for  generating  an 
electric  current,  lamps  for  regulating  the  light,  and  carbon  points,  or  wicks,  which 
are  heated  to  a  white  heat  by  the  passage  of  the  current,  or  yield  a  bright  electric  "  arc.'* 
A  system  so  far  much  used  in  London  is  the  Jablochkoff  "candle,"  which  consists  of 
two  sticks  of  carbon  placed  side  by  side,  a  stick  of  pure  kaolin,  or  china-clay,  intervening. 
The  current  is  arranged  to  flow  up  one  stick  and  down  the  other;  in  doing  this  it  is 
obstructed  by  the  kaolin,  which  will  not  conduct  the  electric  fluid,  and  which  is  merely 
to  keep  a  regular  distance  between  the  carbons,  wasting  away  as  these  are  consumed,  so 
that  the  whole  candle  burns  down  together. 


THE    ELECTRIC    LIGHT. 


35 


Here  you  see  the  "  candle "  in  a  glass  globe ;   and  also  an  enlarged  view  of  the  two 
carbon  sticks  with  the  china-clay  between  them.     The  current  is  usually  supplied  by  what 
is  called  a  dynamo-electric  machine  worked  by  a  steam  or  gas 
engine,  so  that  gas  is  used  even  under  this  new  system. 

There  is  another  method  of  producing  the  electric  light 
besides  that  of  the  bright  electric  arc,  known  as  the  method 
of  "  incandescence/'  In  simple  words,  if  a  powerful  current 
is  sent  through  an  imperfect  or  too  small  conductor,  it  makes  TOP  OF 
it  glowing  hot.  Platinum  wires  are  sometimes  used ;  but 
the  best  lamps  of  this  kind  have  been  made  of  very  small 
slips  of  carbon,  which  have  to  be  enclosed  in  globes  emptied  of  air,  in 
order  that  they  may  only  glow  with  the  heat  and  not  burn  away.  This 
kind  of  light  is  much  less  and  of  a  softer  kind  than  the  other,  and  it  is 
hoped  that  ere  long  it  may  be  successfully  introduced,  even  into  private 


JABLOCHKOFF 
CANDLE 

(ENLARGED). 


JABLOCHKOFF    LAMP. 


houses.  But  exactly  the  best  system  has  yet  to  be  determined,  so 
many  points  having  to  be  considered  before  deciding  the  question,  and  improvements  are 
made  in  one  point  -or  another  almost  every  day.  Six  different  systems  of  electric  lighting 
have  recently  been  tried  upon  a  large  scale  in  the  streets  of  London  alone. 


PLACE   DE   I/OPEKA,    PAKIS,    ILLUMINATED   WITH    THE    ELECTRIC    LIGHT. 


TINDER-BOX,   FLINT,    STEEL,   AND   BRIMSTONE   MATCHES. 


THE   TALLOW   CANDLE. 


STRIKING    A    LIGHT. 

CAVING  said  so  much  about  coal,  gas,  and  the  troubles  of  our 
forefathers  concerning  fuel  and  light,  let  us  spare  a  little  time  to 
learn  something  of  a  humble  but  very  useful  article,  the  history  of 
which  is  worth  mention  here.  I  mean  the  lucifer  match  of  every- 
day life.  In  our  grandfathers*  time  there  were  no  such  things  as 
these  handy  little  servants,  or  at  least  they  were  only  beginning 
to  be  thought  of.  People  used  a  clumsy  contrivance  known  as  a 
tinder-box,  over  which  they  wasted  a  great  deal  of  time  and 
patience,  until  presently  chemistry  came  to  the  rescue  in  this,  as 
in  greater  things,  and  then  succeeded  the  manufacture  of  instan- 
taneous light — at  first  by  means  of  small  metal  bottles  containing 
phosphorus,  stirred  about  with  a  red-hot  wire,  or  with  a  combination  of  fine  cork,  petroleum- 
wax,  and  phosphorus.  These  much-vaunted  "  Briquets  Phosphoriques "  cost  seven-and- 
sixpence  each,  and  were  only  supplied  with  one  dozen  matches  or  splints,  which  had 
afterwards  to  be  bought  separately  in  little  threepenny  bundles  (your  grandmothers  well 
remember  such  things,  I  do  not  doubt) .  Into  these  bottles  the  small  splints  of  wood  tipped  with 
sulphur  were  dipped,  and  when  withdrawn  ignited  silently  through  the  chemical  action  of 
the  air.  This  was  justly  considered  an  immense  advance  upon  the  noisy  flint  and  tinder 
business,  even  though  they  were  very  expensive,  and  so  much  patronised  by  rogues  that  they 
obtained  the  name  of  ''thieves'  matches." 

Very  many  new  inventions  followed,  one  of  the  best  and  cheapest  being,  I  think,  a 
box  which  could  be  purchased  for  a  shilling.  It  was  divided  into  two  parts — one  containing 
matches  dipped  in  a  composition  of  sugar  and  chlorate  of  potash,  while  the  other  held 


SWEDISH    MATCHES.  87 

asbestos  soaked  in  oil  of  vitriol.  The  match  on  being  dipped  into  this  burst  into  a  bright 
flame — that  is,  if  it  were  perfectly  dry  and  in  good  condition,  otherwise  it  was  useless. 

It  was  not  until  1826  that  matches  to  light  of  their  own  accord  were  manufactured, 
but  it  was  ten  more  years  before  lucifer  matches,  as  we  know  them,  appeared  in  the 
market,  certainly  excelling  all  that  had  gone  before,  though  for  a  long  time  the  public 
refused  to  patronise  them,  disliking  the  strong  smell  of  the  phosphorus,  and  concluding 
blindly  that  the  whole  thing  must  be  as  dangerous  as  it  was  certainly  disagreeable. 
For  a  long  time  after  lucifer  matches  had  become  popular  and  in  general  use,  they 
were  but  comparatively  little  made  in  England,  where,  in  consequence  of  the  combustibility 
of  the  materials  then  employed,  a  match-factory  had  to  be  built  at  least  fifty  feet  away 
from  all  habitations;  besides  this,  English  matches  as  a  rule  were  as  yet  of  a  very  poor 
and  uncertain  quality.  No  wonder  that  the  dealers  looked  for  their  supply  to  Vienna 
and  Bohemia,  but  more  particularly  from  Sweden,  then  the  great  market  for  this  useful 
little  article.  This  is  what  was  written  on  the  subject  only  a  few  years  ago : — 

"  We  must  render  due  homage  to  the  industry  of  the  Swedes,  who  for  many  years  have 
supplied  all  Europe  with  matches.  To  them  is  due  the  earliest  practical  application  and 
introduction  of  the  patent  safety  match,  which  at  first  the  facetious  somewhat  unjustly 
described  as  warranted  to  '  light  only  on  the  box,  and  very  seldom  there.'  Formerly  the 
town  of  Jonkoping,  in  Sweden,  enjoyed  the  monopoly  of  manufacturing  safety  matches 
for  the  whole  Continent,  but  now  the  inhabitants  of  several  other  towns  have  started 
the  same  industry,  and  foreign  countries  also  hope  to  compete  with  this  trade.  But 
the  demand  for  Swedish  matches,  nevertheless,  constantly  increases,  and  some  difficulty 
is  experienced  in  procuring  a  sufficient  supply.  A  glance  at  the  export  returns  for  the 
year  1873  establishes  conclusively  the  importance  of  this  trade.  It  appears  from  these  docu- 
ments that  Sweden  sent  abroad  no  less  than  8,351,028  Ibs.  of  matches  in  that  one  year, 
and  that  out  of  this  number  no  less  than  4,490,024  Ibs.  came  to  England.  From  these 
facts  curious  statistics  may  be  readily  worked  out,  for  we  can  reckon  that  each  box  weighs 
one  ounce  and  contains  a  hundred  matches.  Thus  we  have  a  total  export  from  Sweden 
of  13,361,644,800  matches,  out  of  which  we  burn  7,184,038,400  in  England.  But  the 
calculation  goes  a  step  further.  Dividing  this  figure  by  32,000,000,  the  rough  estimate 
of  our  population,  we  discover  that  on  an  average  every  inhabitant  of  England  consumed 
during  the  year  1873  a  total  of  225  Swedish  matches."  But  now  matches  noisy  and  matches 
silent  are  alike  manufactured  in  England — matches  no  longer  sputtering  out  while  choking 
us  with  their  objectionable  sulphurous  fumes,  but  lighting  quietly  and  at  a  touch. 

Stepping  into  one  of  these  English  "  match-maker's  "  establishments,  you  would  be  quite 
surprised  to  see  what  a  large  place  it  is,  and  what  a  number  of  hands  are  employed  in  the 
manufacture  of  what  we  may  have  been  accustomed  to  consider  a  very  insignificant  thing. 
A  penny  box  of  these  tiny  splints  lying  so  snugly  one  on  another  serves  the  require- 
ments of  a  whole  household  for  several  days,  yet  we  find  whole  shiploads  of  the  best 
Quebec  pine  are  constantly  imported  for  the  special  purpose  of  being  used  by  this  one 
firm.  The  logs  are  sawn  up  into  "  deals,"  the  best  and  straightest  of  which  are  selected 
to  form  the  matches,  the  rest  to  make  the  innumerable  boxes  required  to  contain  them. 
All  the  rough  remainders  will  serve  for  the  large  packing-cases  into  which  those  thousand 


38 


THE    WONDERLAND    OF    WORK 


dozens  of   small  boxes  will  be  packed   and    sent  on  their  travels.     It   is   evident  that  very 
little  of  that  huge  pile  of  wood  will  be  wasted  in  our  Wonderland. 

The  first  set  of  deals  have  been  carried  into  a  shed  and  roughly  planed  before  being 
out  into  little  blocks  and  splints  of  the  precise  length  of  two  matches  in  one.  This  is 
done  by  means  of  knives  acting  in  a  "block"  machine,  in  which  a  row  of  blocks  are 


MANUFACTURE    OP    LUCIFER    MATCHES. 

1.  Scorching.  i  Dipping 


2.  Filling  Frames. 


5.  Drying  Room. 


4.  Stamping  Boxes. 


placed,  and  passed  across  a  row  of  sharp  blades  that  cut  their  way  in;  then  as  they 
return  they  meet  other  oddly-shaped  sharp  knives  that  again  cut  them  the  contrary 
cross-cut  direction,  so  that  the  bits  fall  in  a  light  shower  of  tiny  sticks,  which  are 
quickly  gathered  clear  out  of  the  way  and  placed  in  metal  rings,  which  will  be  ready 
for  dipping  when  filled  and  screwed  tightly  together.  As  I  describe  it,  it  sounds  as 
though  it  might  be  a  slow  process,  but  at  any  rate  the  worker  tells  us  this  machine 


MATCH-MAKING.  89 

cuts    15,616   double    splints,  that  is,   twice  as   many    matches,    every  minute    we    stand 
watching  it  snapping  at  the  blocks,  which  drop  before  it  as  though  by  magic. 

If  they  are  to  figure  as  paraffin  matckes  (the  old  sulphur  abominations  have  well- 
nigh  vanished)  they  will  be  taken  into  a  room  where  each  bundle  of  splints  must  be 
held  endways,  for  an  instant,  on  a  plate  of  hot  iron,  so  that  they  get  slightly  scorched 
and  very  hot;  then  a  boy  passes  them  on  through  an  opening  to  a  worker  in  the  room, 
which  is  quite  handy,  and  here  each  end  of  every  scorched  bundle  is  dipped  into  a 
flat  pan  or  perhaps  held  against  a  piece  of  thick  felt  soaked  in  melted  paraffin,  of 
which  the  hot  wood  soon  absorbs  a  sufficient  quantity,  after  which  the  bundles  are 
ready  to  be  put  into  a  large  circular  frame,  and  to  be  snipped  into  halves  or  separate 
matches  by  a  circular  saw  which  Giant  Steam  keeps  going  steadily  all  day  long. 

It  used  to  be  the  custom  to  dip  the  bundles  as  they  were  into  the  composition, 
whatever  it  was;  but  that  was  found  to  be  but  an  awkward  method,  as  the  matches  often 
stuck  together  when  drying,  and  burst  into  flame  when  dragged  apart;  so  now  they  are 
framed,  and  dipped  separately  by  means  of  an  ingenious  machine  well  worth  noting. 
First  we  see  the  scraps  of  wood  dropped  into  a  kind  of  hopper,  which  being  in  a  state 
of  constant  and  steady  "  hop "  soon  shakes  them  out  again,  to  be  pushed  forward  into 
the  frame.  A  lath  is  put  between  each  row  of  splints.  When  about  6,000  of  these 
are  in  place  they  are  screwed  tightly  down,  and  sent  off  to  the  "dipping  arcade/'  a 
long,  airy,  clean  room  where  no  whiff  of  sulphur  comes  to  remind  us  unpleasantly  that 
lucifer  matches  are  being  dipped  all  about  us.  Here  a  large  crowd  of  girls  are  busy 
popping  the  ends  of  the  bits  of  wood  into  a  pasty  composition  of  many  colours,  which  is 
spread  thinly  on  great  stone  slabs  before  them  like  some  kind  of  butter  of  a  ruby  or 
ultramarine  colour,  kept  warm  and  moist  by  hot-water  arrangements  below.  "What  this 
bright  mixture  or  mixtures  may  be,  for  they  vary  somewhat,  we  need  not  inquire,  as 
it  is  a  trade  secret  and  does  not  concern  us  much.  The  frames,  with  their  "  dipped " 
contents  hanging  head  downwards,  are  all  carried  off  to  the  fireproof  drying-room,  which 
is  well  carpeted  with  thick  layers  of  sawdust,  which  we  are  told  is  very  useful  in 
cases  of  fire,  that  will  "try"  to  happen  sometimes  in  such  a  place  as  this,  but  is 
usually  so  closely  watched  for  that  it  has  no  chance.  When  all  these  "  dippings "  are 
dry  they  are  carried  off  to  the  boxing-room,  and  deposited  in  large  open  slate  com- 
partments, before  which  stand  a  number  of  industrious  youngsters  busily  engaged 
tumbling  them  out  of  the  frames  and  into  the  boxes,  where  we  first  become  acquainted 
with  them.  These  boxes  are  packed  up  by  the  dozen  or  gross,  ready  for  the  numerous 
retail  shops  or  the  poor  street  hawkers,  who  get  a  fair  profit  even  when  selling  them 
at  the  low  rate  of  a  halfpenny  each. 

We  think  little  of  such  humble  members  of  our  Wonderland  as  match-makers  and  match- 
sellers,  yet  when  in  1871  a  tax  of  one  halfpenny  per  hundred  on  matches  and  fusees  was 
proposed,  consternation  spread  among  the  poor  people,  and  a  long  and  disconsolate  procession 
came  to  Westminster  Hall  to  protest  against  the  proceeding  as  one  likely  to  injure  their 
trades.  At  their  eamest  entreaty  the  Bill  was  withdrawn,  though  it  had  been  calculated 
that  such  a  tax  would  have  produced  over  half  a  million.  Calculate  from  this,  if  you  can, 
the  number  of  these  trifles  used  in  England. 


A    FIERY    TASK. 


CONCERNING    IRON    AND    STEEL. 

''  We  feed  the  furnace  with  lime  and  coke, 
Wherever  he  makes  good  cheer." 

T7URST  about  iron.  If  you  wish  to  know  concerning 
the  whereabouts  of  the  valuable  metal  we  are  about 
to  track  through  our  Wonderland,  let  me  tell  you  that, 
fortunately  for  mankind,  it  is  the  mineral  most  plentifully 
and  universally  scattered  about  the  world.  It  occurs  in 
all  geological  formations.  It  lies  deep  hidden  in  the  sands 
and  clays  under  our  feet,  it  lurks  in  the  pleasant  spring 
waters  we  drink,  and  it  enters  into  the  composition  of 
the  plants  and  living  creatures  about  us.  Iron,  in  fact,  is 
everywhere,  and  may  well  be  considered  as  "the  metal  of 
civilisation,"  for  of  it  are  fashioned  alike  the  needle  or  the 

cannon,  the  pen  of  the  teacher  or  the  sword  of  the  warrior.  Without  it  man  could  not  either 
dig,  or  plough,  or  reap,  shoe  his  horses,  or  hold  his  own  ;  the  workman  would  have  no  proper 
implements  with  which  to  labour  for  his  own  and  others'  benefit,  the  sempstress  and  tailor 
no  means  of  shaping  or  making  our  clothing,  the  surgeon  no  supply  of  needful  instruments, 
the  helmsman  no  compass  to  point  out  the  way  he  should  go.  Gold  and  silver  and  precious 
stones  we  might  manage  to  live  very  comfortably  without,  but  iron  we  must  have,  for 
it  furnishes  almost  every  useful  thing  necessary  for  civilised  life,  being  easily  adapted  to 
every  requirement  and  purpose.  It  can  be  melted  and  cast  into  a  thousand  things,  from  a 
pan  to  a  child's  cot;  it  can  be  hammered  and  rolled  into  the  large  flat  plates  that  cover 
our  mighty  ships  of  war,  or  into  slighter  ones  to  roof  our  houses ;  or  it  can  be  drawn  into 
G 


42  THE    WONDERLAND    OF    WOEK. 

endless  wires,  some  stout  enough  to  twine  and  twist  into  an  Atlantic  cable,  others  fine  enough 
to  snip  into  tiny  needles  (I  am  told  of  iron  wires  not  exceeding  the  one  hundred  and  fiftieth 
part  of  an  inch  in  thickness).  It  will  build  up  any  number  of  mighty  steam-engines,  or  it 
can  be  wrought  into  the  handful  of  small  nails  that  hold  our  carpet  in  its  place ;  it  stretches 
far  a  network  of  lines,  on  which  thousands  of  folks  can  travel  all  over  the  country. 
In  short,  iron  is  everywhere ;  rich  or  poor,  we  are  all  equally  indebted  to  it.  Under 
some  form  or  other  it  aids  almost  every  rnan  to  earn  his  food,  to  cook  that  food,  to  cut  it, 
and  sometimes  to  digest  it.  Iron  aids  to  strengthen  him  if  he  is  weak,  to  defend  himself 
if  he  is  attacked,  to  build  him  a  house  to  live  in,  to  furnish  it  with  many  needful  things, 
to  give  him  the  means  to  travel  rapidly  and  comfortably,  either  by  sea  or  by  land,  to  cany 
out  whatever  business  he  is  employed  in. 

"  To  fashion  the  cannon  that  roars  in  the  battle  shout, 
The  anchor,  and  the  nail." 

Surely,  then,  next  to  King  Coal  we  may  rank  King  Iron. 

When,  far  back  in  the  dim  recesses  of  old  times,  no  one  can  tell  when,  where,  or 
how,  men  discovered  a  rude  way  of  smelting  iron-ore,  they  made  their  first  great  stride  in 
civilisation,  besides  extending  their  dominion  over  the  brute  creation.  No  doubt  they  treated 
the  ore  in  much  the  same  way  as  the  modern  African  smith  still  does,  building  up  his  clay 
furnace,  through  which  air  is  allowed  to  pass,  so  as  to  form  a  draught,  then  piling  on 
it  layers  of  broken  iron-ore  and  bits  of  charcoal.  Some,  we  are  told,  even  do  without 
the  clay  furnace,  and  manage  to  smelt  their  ore  by  means  of  charcoal  alone,  the  result  of 
this  being  that  the  metal  produced  is  easily  bent  about,  beaten  and  worked  into  Die 
required  shapes.  Dr.  Livingstone  mentioned  this  fact,  saying  that  some  of  the  tribes  he 
encountered  thought  English  iron  but  rotten,  snapping  stuff.  He  had  himself  seen  a  spear- 
like  weapon  of  their  own  make  curl  up  reed-fashion  as  it  flew  against  the  hard,  bony  head 
of  a  hippopotamus ;  but  they  soon  straightened  it  out  again,  as  a  matter  of  course,  with 
a  couple  of  ordinary  stones,  and  without  any  fire. 

We  feel  a  sort  of  pitying  interest  in  the  rude  ironwork  of  uncivilised  nations,  forgetting 
that  in  our  own  land  the  Britons,  Saxons,  and  even  the  far  more  civilised  Romans,  worked 
their  metal  in  very  much  the  same  simple  fashion,  which  indeed  continued  down  to  modern 
times.  For  remember,  it  is  not  long  since  the  strength  of  animals,  and  next  the  power 
of  water,  alone  aided  the  industry  of  man;  iron-works,  perforce  on  a  small  scale,  were 
worked  on  the  banks  of  flowing  streams,  and  it  was  only  when  steam  came  to  turn 
wheels  as  by  magic  that  everything  was  revolutionised.  Many  remains  of  extensive  Roman 
iron-works,  or  "  air  bloomeries,"  as  they  are  called,  have  been  discovered,  especially  in  Sussex, 
Gloucestershire,  and  the  North  of  England.  One  of  these  has  been  thus  graphically 
described : — "  Two  tunnels  were  formed  in  the  side  of  a  hill,  each  wide  at  one  extremity, 
but  tapered  off  to  a  narrow  bore  at  the  other,  where  they  met  in  a  point.  The 
mouths  of  these  channels  opened  towards  the  west,  from  which  quarter  a  prevalent 
wind  blows  in  the  valley,  sometimes  with  great  violence,  so  that  the  blast  ff  air 
received  by  them  would,  when  the  wind  was  high  enough,  be  poured  with  consider- 
able force  and  effect  upon  the  smelting  furnaces  at  the  extremity  of  the  tunnel 


THE    "BLACK    COUNTRY    OF    THE    NORTH." 


43 


good  idea.  But  there  can  be  no  doubt  that,  however  cleverly  managed,  such  chance  blasts 
were  not  to  be  depended  upon,  and  this  must  have  first  suggested  the  idea  of  stationary 
bellows,  then  of  some  kind  of  Jhuge  fanner  which  should  first  stir  all  the  air  about 
it  into  a  state  of  commotion  and  next  force  it  as  wind  into  the  furnace.  The  system 
still  used  to  keep  up  a  draught  in  cupola  furnaces,  though  it  is  of  no  use  as  applied  to 
huge  blast-furnaces,  where  what  is  termed  "blowing  engines"  are  used. 

To  what .  part  of    England   shall    we   turn   that  we   may  see    the    modern   method   of 
preparing  iron   from  its   first  to  its  last  stage?     I  read  in  a  newspaper  of  the  day  that  in 


THE    FIKST    BLACKSMITHS. 


and  about  the  north-eastern  boundary  of  the  district  of  Cleveland,  in  Yorkshire;  two 
millions  of  tons  of  iron  are  annually  produced.  This  sounds  almost  incredible,  until  the 
same  authority  informs  us  also  that  nearly  seventeen  million  tons  of  ore  are  raised  in  Great 
Britain  during  the  same  period.  Ii  we  would  know  more,  let  us  hie  away  to  this  "  Black 
Country  of  the  North,"  where  "  the  forges  glow,  the  hammers  all  are  ringing,"  and  where 
we  shall  find  a  great  iron-producing  district  of  the  most  interesting  kind,  which  has  only 
of  late  risen  to  its  present  importance,  for  thirty  years  ago  Cleveland,  "  the  land  of  the 
cliffs,"  was  a  forlorn  sort  of  place,  with  a  scant  population.  In  1850  Mr.  Vaughan  dis- 
covered a  valuable  seam  of  limestone  under  Eston  Moor.  Since  that  time  all  is  altered, 
and,  instead  of  a  few  peasants,  the  place  is  alive  with  workers,  a  regular  hive  of  bees, 
whose  honey  is  of  the  most  useful  kind,  but  whose  labours  are  of  the  hardest. 

Coal  and   iron,   iron  and  coal — those  two   mineral  treasures  have  cast   their  shadow  on 
what  was  evidently  a  pretty  pastoral  part  of  our  island,  though  there  are  now  but  few  and 


44 


THE    WONDERLAND    OF    WORK. 


far  traces  of  this  beauty,  for  dark  blast-fur- 
naces and  puddling-furnaces  have  sprung  up, 
huge  and  grim,  in  all  directions;  mine  and 
anvil,  and  noisy  forge  and  colliery,  are  to 
be  seen  every  way  we  look;  while  over  all 
hovers  a  great  veil  of  thick,  grey,  oppressive 
smoke,  proceeding  from  hundreds  of  tall  build- 
ings, and  half  hiding  the  fitful  glare  of  flames 
that  seem  to  fret  at  their  endless  task. 

We  travel  on  through  the  darkening  glare 


BIiAST-i'URNACES — FEEDING    A   BLAST-FURNACE — 
THE    FURNACE    MOUTH. 


until  we  reach  the  coke-making  districts,  where 
we  observe  a  curious  form  of  industry.  Rows 
of  odd,  hive-shaped  coke-ovens  are  glowing  on 
either  side  of  us;  coal  and  coke  fill  trucks 
and  waggons;  we  crush  and  crunch  their 
powder  as  we  walk.  Everything  tells  of  these 
two  things — the  very  roads  about  us,  as 
well  as  the  colliers'  cottages,  are  black  and 
frowsy  with  the  dust  they  scatter  and  the 
smoke  they  breathe.  We  are  glad  to  pass 
on,  leaving  behind  us  those  miles  of  dark- 


BLAST-FURNACES.  45> 

heaped  sidings,  and  to  find  ourselves  steaming  onwards,  looking  at  something  fresh  and' 
green,  and  getting  a  glimpse  of  sunshine.  But  it  is  not  for  long;  here  we  are  once  more 
plunging  into  another  world  of  dense  smoke,  which  lies  heavy  and  thick  over  the  great 
iron  centre  of  the  North.  On  our  way  to  Cleveland  we  cannot  but  remember  a  vivid 
description  we  have  read,  which  truly  pictures  the  neighbourhood  we  are  hurrying  through  : — 
"  The  treeless,  barren  waste,  the  lurid  fires  of  the  everlasting  furnace,  the  overhanging- 
bank  of  smoke,  the  begrimed  appearance  of  the  inhabitants,  the  railroad  running  into  the 
works,  with  coal  and  iron  laden  trucks  moving  to  and  fro — these  mark  the  neighbourhood. 
Within  are  seen  the  numerous  cal- 
cining ovens  and  conical  blast-fur- 
naces, the  puddling-furnaces  and  roll- 
ing-mills, with  their  huge  steam- 
hammers,  the  vast  stacks  of  coal,  of 
coke,  and  of  firebricks,  the  foundry. 


with  its  chimney,  and  the  open  spaces  where  lie  the  products 
of  mill  and  furnace.  In  adjacent  parts  of  the  country  are 
situated  the  coal-mines,  the  iron-pits,  the  limestone  quarries 
— all  things  needful  are  here,  except  perhaps  the  fire- 
bricks, which  are  usually  obtained  from  Staffordshire/' 

In  such  a  place  as  this  surely  there  will  be  no  difficulty 
in  seeing  and  hearing  much  concerning  iron.  There  seems 
to  be  miles  of  furnaces,  forges,  and  foundries,  of  all  shapes 
and  sizes,  and  the  air  is  noisy  with  the  clash  and  bang  of 
steam-hammers  at  work  in  every  direction.  Our  first  visit 
must  be  to  one  of  those  huge  piles  of  circular  buildings, 
the  lower  part  of  which  consists  of  a  solid  square  basement, 
pierced  with  arches.  The  largest  of  these  forms  the  front 
of  the  furnace,  and  is  used  for  the  removal  of  the  molten  A  VIEW  OF  THE  INTERIOR  OF  A  BLAST' 

FURNACE. 

metal  contained  within  its  depths.  Sometimes  the  build- 
ings stand  singly,  but  here  several  of  the  furnaces,  all  of  which  are  built  of  very  hard 
and  incombustible  materials,  such  as  sand,  limestone,  and  fireclay  held  together  by  mighty 
bands  of  iron,  are  set  sideways  in  a  row,  so  that  they  can  all  be  "  charged "  with  the 
different  materials  from  a  gallery  which  runs  along  the  entire  length,  one  powerful  engine 
supplying  the  whole  of  the  huge  ovens  with  the  blast  of  hot  air  which  is  required  to  keep 
them  at  the  proper  degree  of  heat. 

If  instead  of  looking  up  at  you  could  look  down  into  one  of  those  huge,  volcano-like 
openings,  so  full  of  roaring  fire  and  flame,  you  would  understand  the  process  of  cleansing 
iron-ore  much  more  clearly  than  through  any  written  explanation  I  can  offer ;  but  as  such 
a  peep  is  certainly  impossible,  for  the  flames  within  roar  and  spout  and  glare  like  fiery 
young  dragons,  let  me  try  to  make  the  matter  clear  from  a  safe  distance. 

Each  tall  and  massive  chimney  is  made  of  this  peculiar  shape,  that  the  supply  of  materials 
for  ever  being  flung  into  its  gaping  mouth  may  have  room  to  swell  and  bubble  and  expand 
before  it  settles  down  at  the  narrowest  yet  strongest  parts  of  the  furnace — "  boshes/'  I  should 


46  THE    WONDERLAND    OF    WORK. 

call  them.  Right  at  the  bottom  is  the  "  hearth/'  which  is  a  chamber  or  reservoir  for 
receiving  the  metal,  that  does  not  really  and  thoroughly  melt  until  it  reaches  the  place 
I  have  pointed  out,  when,  being  the  heaviest  of  all  the  fusible  materials,  it  sinks  into  it, 
dropping  away  from  all  the  rest,  and  lying  in  a  thick  molten  liquid  below ;  while 
just  over  this  "  hearth "  are  iron  pipes,  or  "  tuyeres/'  which  act  like  the  nozzles  of 
bellows,  and  carry  the  tremendous  blasts  of  hot  air  created  in  the  engine-room  through  into 
the  fiery  furnace.  The  heat  is  so  great  that  these  pipes  have  to  be  kept  cool  by  means  of 
chilled  water  or  a  current  of  cold  air,  to  which  they  are  constantly  exposed. 

Perhaps  I  should  have  mentioned  something  concerning  the  masses  of  crude  materials 
poured  so  liberally  down  into  that  huge,  hungry-looking  receptacle,  seemingly  ever  ready. 
They  consist  of  roughly-calcined  ore,  ironstone,  limestone,  anthracite  coal,  or  coke,  which 
tumble  in,  heaped  one  upon  the  other  in  shapeless  masses,  to  resolve  themselves  presently  into 
clear  molten  metal,  and  into  a  cindery  slag  or  refuse  which  collects  and  floats  on  its  surface  ; 
for  as  the  upper  contents  of  this  great  caldron  become  heated  and  softer,  the  limestone 
attaches  itself  to  the  impurities  of  the  iron  and  forms  this  slag,  while  the  iron  itself  on 
its  way  downwards  gets  melted  and  carbonised,  and  fit  for  its  first  appearance  as  pig-iron. 

When  this  mighty  stew,  the  sole  object  of  which  is  to  smelt  and  clear  the  rough 
ores,  has  been  allowed  to  boil  for  about  twelve  hours,  and  the  colour  of  the  slag  shows  it 
is  done,  the  glowing  metal,  now  bubbling  about  the  hearth,  must  be  removed  from  the 
furnace — not  into  pots  and  pans,  for,  as  you  may  imagine,  nothing  of  that  kind  could 
contain  such  a  fiery  liquid.  It  has  to  be  provided  with  a  large,  safe,  and  easy  receptacle, 
into  which  it  can  flow  and  settle  and  cool  at  its  ease,  without  fear  of  breakage.  To 
make  this  possible,  a  very  ingenious  yet  simple  method  is  adopted.  If  you  look  at  the 
space  in  front  of  the  furnace  you  will  most  likely  see  that  it  is  enclosed  in  a  large 
roofed  shed,  though  sometimes  there  is  not  even  that,  and  the  opening  is  left  uncovered. 
In  here  are  several  men  busily  smoothing  and  levelling  over  a  great  layer  of  damp 
sand,  and  by  means  of  long  wooden  beams,  or  moulds,  forming  it  into  the  shape  of 
a  monster  gridiron,  the  smaller  bars  of  which  they  term  the  "pigs;"  the  larger  one, 
that  is  to  nourish  the  rest,  is  the  "  sow."  For  the  present  the  "  pigs "  are  cut  off  from 
their  common  parent  by  means  of  "  shutters,"  or  ridges  of  sand  neatly  arranged  at  their 
starting-point  by  those  men  with  shovels,  as  you  can  see  by  glancing  opposite. 

When  all  is  ready  for  the  "cast/'  a  signal  is  given,  and  one  of  the  crowd 
present  begins  to  drive  a  long  iron  bar  against  the  "hearth"  of  the  furnace.  After 
some  determined  poking  and  drilling  he  manages  to  loosen  and  remove  a  thick  plaster 
of  clay  and  coal-dust  that  has  hitherto  kept  the  liquid  iron  in  its  place.  A  dreadful 
rumbling  and  roaring  is  heard  going  on,  but  that  is  only  the  hot  blast  or  air  being  turned 
off  during  the  casting.  The  man  taps  steadily,  grasping  his  long  iron  rod  with  both 
strong,  muscular  hands.  As  the  clay  loosens  somewhat,  little  dazzling  spatters  of  red-hot 
metal  first  begin  to  fly  about  it.  Soon  there  is  a  gurgling  burst,  and  out  gushes  the 
liberated  torrent,  the  spurt  of  which  for  a  moment  scatters  the  workers  in  every  direction, 
but  the  next  instant  brings  them  all  running  up,  eager  to  hinder  this  too  plentiful  flow 
by  flinging  shovelfuls  of  wet  sand  in  its  way.  Soon,  pouring  more  steadily,  it  rushes 
along  the  "sow"  first,  and  that  being  on  a  slight  incline  fills  the  farther  pigs  to  begin 


CASTING    PIG-IEON. 


47 


with.  As  each  pig-  bed  brims,  the  barriers  of  sand  are  cleared  out  of  the  way  of  the 
next  one.  If  the  metal  moves  too  sluggishly,  it  is  helped  along-  by  means  of  long  poles 
drawn  before  it  and  leaving  slight  tracks,  which  it  follows  as  a  stream  of  water  will 
follow  your  finger  when  slightly  moistened.  You  may  imagine  all  this  has  to  be  done 
as  rapidly  as  possible,  for  the  metal  stream  in  cooling  soon  begins  to  thicken  and 

darken.  When  a  sufficient  flow  has 
been  obtained,  and  the  pig  beds  are 
filled,  the  tapping-hole  is  hurriedly 
plug-ged  up  again  by  means  of  another 
appliance  of  clay  and  coal-dust.  Wet 
sand  is  quickly  shovelled  over  the  beds 
of  yet  glowing  metal,  and  a  stream  of 
cold  water  turned  on  to  cool  them. 


THE    PUDDLING    FUKNACE— A    "BALL"    OF    IRON. 


Very  soon  men  can  be  seen   striding 

across    the    bars,    moving-     here     and 

there    amid    a    cloud    of    steam,  each 

armed    with   sledges,    or    levers,    with 

which  they  break  up  the  as  yet   soft 

iron,   separating   the  pigs    from    their 

parent  sow,  and  then  breaking-  up  the 

sow    into    good-sized   bars,    which   are 

now  ready   for  market    as  pig  or  cast    iron.       The   stamp   of  the   founder   is   under   each 

bar,   having  been  first  pressed  in  the  sand  by  the  wooden    moulds  used  to  form  them. 

The  men  whose  business  it  is  to  attend  upon  these  flaring-  and  glaring  blast- 
furnaces usually  work  in  two  relays,  or  sets  of  twelve  each — one  on,  one  off ;  for,  as 
a  rule,  their  task  never  ceases.  These  mighty  ovens  are  alight  with  fire  and  flame 
Sunday  and  Monday,  and  every  other  day  from  year's  end  to  year's  end,  never  being  allowed 
to  die  out,  unless  it  may  be  for  needful  repairs,  or  on  account  of  a  failure  in  the 
public  requirements ;  for  if  once  allowed  to  cool  down,  they  cost  over  ,£500  before  they 
can  be  put  into  proper  cooking  order  ag-ain.  As  we  know,  a  whole  row  of  blast-furnaces 
are  connected  one  with  another  by  a  continuous  platform  which  runs  along  their  summits, 


48  THE    WONDERLAND    OF    WOEK. 

so  that  a  few  workers  can  easily  feed  them  all;  but  they  require  several  other  attendants 
to  get  their  varied  supplies  ready.  Thus  it  is  the  wage-book  tells  of  keepers,  chargers, 
slaggers,  fillers,  limestone-breakers,  gas-stove  men,  under-men,  and  boys,  besides  a  number 
of  women  and  girls,  dirty  and  forlorn-looking  folk,  dressed  so  like  the  miners  that,  as 
happens  about  the  coal-pit's  mouth,  we  have  to  look  in  their  faces  before  we  can  realise  that 
they  are  not  men.  All  these  seem  to  find  plenty  to  do,  breaking,  fetching,  and  carrying 
limestone,  unloading  coal  and  coke,  and  making  themselves  generally  useful  amid  the  dust 
and  din  inseparable  from  their  work. 

Should  you  chance  to  see  these  processes  going  on  at  night,  you  will  be  much  struck  by 
the  strange,  weird  scene  a  forge  presents  at  such  a  time — the  red  glare  of  fire  and  furnace,  the 
gaunt  and  shadowy  figures  of  the  half -dressed  workers  darting  here  and  there,  seemingly  at 
play  with  great  lumps  of  molten  metal,  now  apparently  prodding  them  with  a  long  snake-like 
wand,  now  dragging  them  from  one  part  of  the  yard  to  the  other,  then  pushing  them  into 
the  clutches  of  clanging  black  iron  monsters  that  dab  and  roll  and  fashion  the  glowing 
lumps  of  metal  as  easily  as  though  they  were  merely  pats  of  soft  butter,  instead  of  the  hard 
unmanageable  substance  we  know  them  to  be.  Fire,  noise,  sparks,  steam,  and  panting 
machinery  in  every  direction — above,  may  be,  the  quiet  moon  watching  the  active  spirit  of 
industry  so  busy  below. 

But  in  this  very  heart  of  our  Wonderland  we  have  no  time  to  think  of  anything  but  the 
endless  battle  going  on  about  us — man  subduing  the  dark  rebellious  servant  he  has  dug  out  of 
the  depths  of  the  earth.  Here  are  the  bars  of  brittle  pig  we  just  now  saw  cast,  about  to  be 
puddled,  and  the  puddler  is  placing  them  on  the  flat  hearth  or  floor  of  a  fiery  reverberatory  or 
puddling  furnace.  If  we  could  look  inside  we  should  see  that  it  has  a  most  peculiar  arched 
roof,  which  causes  the  flames,  not  the  gases  it  contains,  to  bend  down  and  meet  the  metal 
placed  within,  greeting  it  with  such  a  hot  welcome  that  it  soon  begins  to  soften  and  yield. 

An  intelligent  overlooker  gives  us  a  half-learned  explanation  of  what  is  going  on  within, 
and  what  are  the  results  of  this  curious  baking.  He  says  that  pure  iron  in  itself  is  com- 
mercially impossible,  and  it  only  becomes  fusible  because  of  the  various  agents  which  are  in 
combination  with  it.  In  the  early  stage  of  puddling,  all  the  carbon  and  silicon  about  it 
oxidise ;  then  the  metal,  being  at  last  free  of  them,  is  precipitated,  and  forms  separate  grains, 
or  granules,  that  are  not  quite  pure  metal,  each  granule  being  surrounded  by  a  kind  of  film, 
which  is  a  combination  of  sulphide  and  phosphide,  adhering  very  closely  to  the  iron,  and 
to  get  rid  of  as  much  as  possible  of  which  is  the  whole  end  and  object  of  "puddling." 

All  the  while  he  has  been  talking  and  we  listening,  a  tall  watchful  puddler  has 
been  attending  to  his  furnace,  constantly  watching  its  contents,  and  every  now  and  then 
stirring  up  the  metal  within  by  means  of  a  long  bar,  or  "rabble,"  several  of  which  stand 
in  a  bath  of  cold  water  near  at, hand.  He  pokes  and  works  the  " charge "  about  through 
an  opening  in  front  of  the  furnace,  taking  care  that  every  portion  of  it  should  in  its  turn 
come  to  the  surface  and  meet  the  heat,  which  he  constantly  regulates  by  means  of  a 
damper. 

As  we  watch  the  puddler  twirling,  rubbing,  and  teasing  the  glowing  red-white  mass 
hidden  from  view,  our  friend  informs  us  that  in  one  way  this  man  is  doing  something  very 
much  like  a  washerwoman's  work  when  she  "  dollies  "  the  dirt  out  of  a  mass  of  wet  linen ;  for 


"PUDDLING."  49 

just  as  soapy  water  acts  upon  that,  so  does  the  constant  rubbing  act  upon  and  remove  the 
impurities,  which  come  away  in  the  form  of  cinder,  and  these  have  to  be  as  thoroughly 
as  possible  removed  before  the  iron  can  be  considered  quite  good  and  malleable. 

The  poor  puddler,  who  appears  by  this  time  to  be  nearly  melting,  is  constantly  wiping 
his  streaming  face  and  arms,  or  drinking  long  cool  draughts  of  weak  oatmeal  and  water  out  of 
a  broken  pitcher,  all  the  while  closely  watching  and  stirring  his  work,  that  he  tells  us  is 
"  coming  to  nature,"  or  one  certain  point  at  which  the  pure  iron  separates  into  lumps, 
about  which  little  jets  of  gas  appear  to  be  dancing;  then  he  turns  and  rolls  his  rod  at  a 
great  rate,  somehow  collecting  these  grains  into  lumps,  or  "balls/'  weighing  about  sixty 
pounds  each. 

The  removal  of  these  fiery  "  balls "  from  their  hot  bed  is  a  most  exciting  moment  for 
any  one  who  has  not  witnessed  such  a  sight  before.  At  a  signal  the  whole  heavy  iron  door  or 
front  of  the  dark  furnace  is  suddenly  lifted  up  by  means  of  a  counterweight,  which  an  under- 
hand man  attends  to,  while  the  half -naked  worker,  tongs  in  hand,  pounces  upon  the  lump  of 
pinky  metal,  and  swinging  it  on  to  a  trolley,  or  sometimes  carrying  it  off  himself,  held  fast 
by  those  long  and  strong  pincers,  places  it  in  the  jaws  of  a  ponderous  shingling  hammer, 
which  will  hammer  and  bang  it  into  a  dense  and  compact  mass.  The  more  knocking  about  it 
gets  now  the  better  for  the  iron,  which  from  a  round,  red,  formless  lump,  we  see  toning  down 
into  an  oblong  mass,  or  "bloom/7  which  is  passed  on  to  the  tender  mercies  of  the  forge 
rolls,  consisting  of  two  great  hard  and  heavy-grooved  rollers,  working  against  each  other. 
One  end  of  the  iron  is  now  placed  in  their  jaws,  and  as  they  rapidly  revolve,  the  mass  passes 
between  them,  squeezed  on  its  way  through  the  groove  until  it  comes  out  on  the  other  side  in 
the  form  of  a  rough  bar.  Another  worker  seizes  this  with  his  tongs,  and  passes  it  back  to  the 
first  man,  to  be  again  rolled  through  in  a  smaller  groove ;  until,  here  finished  with,  it  has 
taken  the  form  of  a  long  flat  bar,  which  has  next  to  be  cut  into  pieces,  and  what  is  called 
"  faggoted  " — that  is,  made  up  into  tight  bundles,  very  much  as  though  they  were  awkward 
sticks  of  wood. 

When  the  forge-boys,  whose  business  this  is,  have  finished  their  task,  they  carry  the 
faggots  piled  on  thin  wooden  framing  to  the  " balling"  furnace,  where  they  are  again  heated 
until  they  arrive  at  welding-heat,  when  they  must  be  taken  out  of  the  hot  oven,  placed 
under  a  mighty  steam-hammer,  and  then  again  rolled  in  a  pair  of  grooved  rolls,  only  this  time 
they  are  not  merely  turned  out  in  straight  bars,  but  varied  in  size  and  shape,  according  to 
the  purposes  for  which  they  are  intended.  In  ship-building,  for  instance,  very  many  "  angle- 
bars,"  reminding  one  of  the  letter  L,  are  required  for  making  the  frames  which  hold  the 
outside  plating,  they  are  also  being  made  instead  of  being  rolled  into  bars ;  the  metal  is 
sometimes  passed  through  flattening  rollers,  and  squeezed,  and  rolled,  and  screwed,  and 
squeezed,  and  rolled  flat  again,  until,  in  lieu  of  a  bar,  it  has  become  a  plate  of  iron, 
which,  after  having  been  trimmed  into  shape  with  a  pair  of  shears  which  cut  and  snip 
it  easily,  may  find  its  place  on  the  sides  of  some  mighty  man-of-war.  The  bits 
of  pig-iron,  when  changed  by  means  of  this  puddling  process  into  wrought-iron,  become 
capable  of  bearing  great  tensile  and  trying  strains  in  different  directions,  such  as  it 
must  often  encounter  in  certain  kinds  of  heavy  machinery,  but  more  particularly  when 
forming  iron  chains  and  anchors,  which  would  be  but  useless  things,  were  it  not  for  the 

H 


50 


THE    "WONDERLAND    OF    WORK. 


tensile  power  possessed  by  the  metal  of  which  they  are  composed.  So  important  is  this 
from  a  sailor's  point  of  view,  that  all  such  things  supplied  to  our  Navy  have  to  be  officially 
tested  before  they  are  passed  and  pronounced  fit  for  use.  Strangely  enough,  the  property 

and  value  of  cast-iron  lie  in  exactly  the  opposite  direction ; 
it  cannot  resist  stretching  or  twisting,  but  it  can  bear 
tremendous  weights,  and  any  amount  of  pressure  or  com- 
pression. The  thorough  understanding  and  allowance  for 
this  difference  between  wrought  iron  and  cast  is  of  the 
greatest  importance  in  all  engineering  work,  as  any  mis- 
take between  the  virtues  of  the  two  metals  would  cause 
fearful  confusion  and  damage. 

In   the   days  when   little  was   done   in   cast-iron,  very 
beautiful  and  artistic  designs  were  carried  out  by  the  slow 
and  sure  process  of  hammering  the  metal,  which  Continental 
blacksmiths  and  locksmiths  had  early  learnt  to  beat  and  to 
twist  into  graceful  curves  and  flourishes, 
with  which  they  ornamented  the  panels 
forming  the  doors  of  their  public  build- 
ings,  the    mighty  locks  of  the  castle 
gate,  the  handles  of  the  fanciful  keys 
of  the  period,  or  even  the  more  deli- 
cate flourishes  about  the  heads  or  clasps 
of  belts   intended  to  bear  the  weight 
of  purses  or  pouches,  worn    alike   by 
citizen,    prince,  and  noble    lady,  who 
delighted     in     the     graceful     things 
fashioned    of    this     unlikely 
metal,    of     which     many    a 
weapon  was  daintily  chiselled. 
But,  unfortunately, 
iron  rusts,  and  slowly 
but  surely  passes  away ; 
so   that,    therefore,    we 
have  but  few   of   these 
early     works     left     to 
wonder   at  and  admire, 

excepting,  indeed,  the  light  scrolls  which  Biscornette,  the  smith,  spread 
as  hinges  over  the  doorways  of  Notre  Dame  and  other  churches,  or 
the  graceful  fountain  which  the  better-known  Quentyn  Matsys, 
"the  artist-blacksmith  of  Antwerp/'  left  to  grace  the  quaint  old 
town  he  loved.  To  us  it  seems  strange  to  remember  how  the  ignorant 
populace  of  those  times  held  these  skilled  workers  in  superstitious 

SWORD-HANDLE     Of 

awe.     Not  being  able  to  understand  how  out  of  a  mere  straight  bar         WROUQHT-IKON. 


•WROUGHi-IKON    FOUNTAIN. 


SUPERSTITIONS    ABOUT    IRONWORK. 


of  iron  such  beautiful  fancies  could  be  carried  out,  they  declared  it  must  be  by  the  aid 
of  magic ;  and  when  this  same  clever  smith,  Biscornette,  suddenly  and  mysteriously 
disappeared  from  his  home  and  beloved  forge,  it  was  secretly  whispered  that  the  Enemy  of 
Mankind  had  claimed  the  artist's  soul  as  the  price  of  the  power  he  had  endowed  him 
with — one  peculiarity  of  the  good  old  times  being  that  when  any  man  had  genius  and 
industry  beyond  his  fellows,  as  well  as  the  determination  which  enabled  him  to  achieve  things 
far  out  of  the  common  track,  he  was  invariably  accredited  with  having  obtained  the  assistance 
of  the  Evil  One,  and  was  in  consequence  avoided  and  held  in  holy  horror  by  many  of  those 
ignorant  folk  who  could  not  understand  the  use  he  was  making  of  the  talents  with  which 
the  Master  had  endowed  him.  Surely  things  must  have 
changed  for  the  better,  as,  under  the  same  circumstances, 
he  is  now  reverently  believed  to  have  received  his  gifts 
from  God  ;  and  if  he  employs  them  for  the  good  and 
advancement  of  his  fellows,  he  is  sure  of  being  respected 
and  encouraged  by  all  about  him. 

Curiously  enough,  many  Abyssinians — who  are  well  armed, 
and  owe  so  much  to  their  workers — look,  it  is  said,  with 
mingled  respect  and  horror  upon  their  skilful  blacksmiths, 
believing  that  they  must  be  aided  by  magic,  and  have  the 
power  of  transforming  themselves  into  hyenas,  and  wandering 
about  the  woods  after  nightfall  to  devour  all  whom  they 
chance  to  meet.  Workers  in  iron  are  therefore  avoided  as 
much  as  possible,  more  especially  as  they  have  also  the  credit 
of  causing  harmless  folk  to  become  possessed  by  the  "  Buda," 
or  evil  spirit,  whose  ugly  spell  is  worked  by  twisting  a  blade 
of  grass  into  a  circular  form.  Should  the  grass  break,  it  is 
believed  the  victim  dies  at  once  ;  should  it  remain  circular, 


IRON. 


he  is  possessed,  and  afflicted  with  dreadful  fits — no  doubt  of  epilepsy — which  can  only  be 
relieved  by  music  and  dancing,  or  the  use  of  certain  mystical  charms,  at  the  mere 
touch  of  which  the  "Buda"  will  succumb.  The  victim  to  the  ironworker's  malice  tries 
every  night  to  escape  into  the  woods,  where  the  evil-minded  blacksmith,  in  the  form 
of  a  hyena,  is  said  to  be  waiting  to  devour  him.  Sometimes  the  "Buda"  will,  through 
the  lips  of  the  person  possessed,  reveal  the  sorcerer's  name,  in  which  case  the  friends 
of  the  sufferer  will  lay  in  wait  for  and  try  to  capture  the  hyena,  which  they  believe 
they  can  prevent  from  returning  to  his  natural  condition  of  a  Blacksmith  until  he  has 
restored  their  unfortunate  relative  to  his  original  form  and  nature. 

But  to  return  to  the  busy  forge,  noisy  with  the  din  of  ironworkers  and  the  clang 
of  the  big  steam-hammer.  Let  us  cross  the  yard,  and  watch  the  various  processes  going 
on  in  that  large,  half-open  shed,  where  we  are  told  the  iron  is  being  rolled  into  sheets. 
The  first  thing  we  notice  on  entering  is,  that  we  are  treading  on  a  floor  neither  of  wood 
nor  stone,  as  in  most  "  shops/'  but  of  hard  and  shining  metal,  bright  with  much  rubbing 
and  the  tread  of  many  feet.  In  every  direction  are  sets  of  rollers,  great  revolving  wheels, 
and  a  pair  of  monster  shears,  the  upper  half  of  whose  steel  jaws  is  for  ever  opening  and 


52 


THE    WONDERLAND    OF    WOEK. 


shutting  in   a  hungry  fashion,  that  somehow  makes  us  shudder  with  a  notion  that  it  would 
snap  a  head  off  quite  easily,  and,  like  some  monster  of  early  fable,  rather  enjoy  the  doing  it. 

Here,  too,  we  find  another  great  fiery  furnace,  which  one  man  is  keeping  open  while 
a  second  sturdy  worker  is  dragging  a  lump  of  glowing  metal  out  of  its  pinky  recesses. 
As  he  swings  it  forth,  clenched  fast  at  the  end  of  those  long  tongs,  we  cannot  help 
noticing  that  it  is  very  like  one  of  those  sturdy  bars  we  last  saw  being  patted  about 
and  dealt  with  by  the  "shingling"  hammer.  He  turns  and  twists  and  swings  the  heavy 

red  mass,  until,  by  what  seems  to  be  some  sleight  of  hand, 
but  which  is,  of  course,  only  professional  dexterity,  he  has 
pushed  one  end  of  it  between  two  ridges  in  the  rollers, 

which  consist  of 
a  graduated 
series  of  such 
ridges,  each  one 
so  shaped  as 
to  narrow  the 
space  between 
which  the  metal 
must  presently 


SHAPING    IRON. 


PIERCING    IRON. 

pass.     Once  in,  the 

bar     gets     such    a 

squeeze  that  it  rolls 

out     much     flatter 

and  thinner  than  it 

was  when  it  entered. 

It  has  quite  a  curve 

upwards     now,     of 

which     curve     the 

worker  takes  advantage,  for  by  this  he  coaxes  it  to  re-enter 

the  rolls.      In  it  goes,  and  out   it  comes  again,  each  time 

getting  more  and  more  of    a   squeeze,  until    after  perhaps 

half-a-dozen  journeys  in  and  out,  the  solid  bar  has  changed   into   a   long,   helpless-looking 

strip   of   whity-red   metal,   which    is   now  hurriedly  seized    upon,  and  carried    off   to   those 

ever-opening  shears,  that  with  two   snaps  will  have    clipped  off   the  rough  ends,  and  with 

another  will  have  cut  the  strip  in  two  as  easily  as  though  it  had  been  a  sheet  of  cardboard. 

As  these  two  halves  of  our  bar  come  apart,  they  are  carried  off  to  another  kind  of 
machine,  with  long,  smooth  rollers,  that  also  eagerly  seize  upon  one  end  of  the  metal 
presented  to  them,  and  squeeze  and  roll  as  the  bars  constantly  travel  backwards  and  for- 
wards, getting  thinner  and  longer  yet,  for  the  upper  space  has  been  narrowed  and  narrowed 
by  means  of  tight  screws ;  and  still  the  metal  has  been  forced  to  squeeze  through,  until 
at  last  the  bars  are  transformed  into  flat  sheets  or  plates,  some  thirty  feet  long.  If  they 
are  required  to  be  of  a  medium  thickness,  one  is  now  laid  above  the  other,  and  they 
are  rolled  together;  but  if  a  very  thick  sheet  is  required,  the  one  would  be  rolled  alone. 


CASTING    IEON    IN    MOULDS. 


53 


In  the  case  of  these  very  thin  and  light  sheets,  so  much  used  for  roofings  or  other 
purposes,  and,  when  prepared  with  zinc,  known  as  "  galvanised  corrugated  sheet-iron,"  from 
four  to  six  of  these  pieces  are  rolled  at  the  same  time. 

There  is  a  smaller  tower  beyond  these  large  ones,  which  the  workers  often  refer  to 
as  the  "cupola  furnace."  It  looks  very  much  the  same  as  a  blast-furnace;  but  we  will 
find,  on  inquiry,  that  it  is  only  used  to  melt  iron  that  has  already  been  smelted.  It  is 
by  means  of  these  cupola  furnaces,  built  of  firebricks  and  lined  with  iron,  which  are  to 
be  found  on  almost  all  engineering  works,  that  "castings"  in  iron  are  taken — a  very 
curious  process,  which  we  will  stay  to  witness,  the  more  especially  as  we  meet  with 
cast-iron  goods  in  many  forms,  from  workshop  gas-branches  to  our  iron 
bedstead. 

We  notice  that  the  chimney  of  the  furnace  is  very  much  smaller 
than  that  of  its  big  brothers,  therefore  it  requires  much  less  "charging/' 
and,  instead  of  mighty  engines,  it  is  supplied  with  air  by  a  flying 
"  fanner,"  which  supplies  it  with  a  cold  instead  of  a  hot  blast.  Indeed, 
the  "  cold  blast "  is  usually  much  preferred  for  all  cast-iron  objects,  especially 
those  which  are  particularly  required  to  resist  compression. 

We  know  all  about  the  blast-furnace  pigs  lying  in  their  sandy 
bed,  and  the  tapping  of  a  cupola  furnace  is  very  much  the  same  kind 
of  thing.  There  is  the  plaster  of  clay  and  coal-dust  to  be  removed  by 
the  worker's  rod.  Then  the  molten  metal  pours  out,  not  into  a  sandy 
bed,  but  into  a  large  ladle  or  pot  made  of  cast-iron  and  lined  with  sand 
and  clay.  Some  of  these  are  small  enough  to  be  easily  carried  off,  when 
filled,  by  two  men,  to  that  part  of  the  foundry  where  the  casting  is  to 
take  place.  But  when  a  large  piece  of  work  is  to  be  turned  out,  a  pro- 
portionately large  "  pot "  will  be  required,  and  more  than  one  furnace  may 
have  to  boil  up  a  supply  of  seething  broth  before  such  a  casting  can  take  place. 

The  floor  of  every  foundry  is  covered  with  a  considerable  thickness  of  the  very 
finest  sand,  which,  however,  looks  so  black  and  grimy  that  we  can  hardly  guess  what  it  is. 
All  about  us  we  see  the  cast-iron  "  boxes "  in  which  the  castings  are  to  be  made ;  they 
are  of  every  variety  of  shape  and  size,  but  all  consisting  of  two  halves,  an  upper  and  a 
lower  one,  crossed  with  thin  plates  to  hinder  the  sand  from  falling  out  when  the  "  box " 
is  tumbled  all  ways. 

Here  is  a  man  about  to  cast  a  number  of  small  cylinders,  of  which  he  has  the  wooden 
model  at  hand.  He  first  proceeds  to  fill  the  lower  half  of  a  "box"  with  the  sand,  which 
lies  massed  in  such  plenty  under  his  feet;  then  he  lays  the  model  in  so  that  its  lower 
half  is  embedded  tightly  and  evenly;  next  he  replaces  the  top  half  like  a  lid  on  the 
"box,"  and  fastens  it  down  securely  by  means  of  projecting  bolts  or  pins.  More  soft 
sand  is  now  poured  in  at  the  open  top,  pressed  and  packed  tightly  until  it  has  taken 
the  impression  of  that  upper  uncovered  half;  then  the  box  is  opened,  the  model  lifted 
out  of  its  bed,  leaving  exact  impressions  or  moulds  of  the  upper  and  lower  halves  on  those 
two  half  layers  or  sand-patterns,  which  the  pressure  has  fixed  so  firmly  into  shape  that 
the  moulder  is  able  to  touch  them  up  here  and  there  where  the  sand  seem?  not  to  have 


CUPOLA  FURNACE. 


THE    WONDERLAND    OF    WORK. 


fitted  quite  neatly  before  dusting  it  over  with  lampblack  or  charcoal,  before  taking  his 
cast,  which  he  does  by  again  fastening  the  two  portions  of  the  box  together,  this  time 
with  no  solid  model  in  them,  and  pouring  the  molten  metal  in  at  a  hole  or  channel  which 
is  left  for  the  purpose.  "When  cold  he  opens  the  box  and  turns  out  a  completed  solid  object 
of  the  exact  shape  we  just  now  saw  left  hollowed  out  in  the  sand. 

We  have  only  seen  the  casting  of  small  solid  objects  ;  the  casting  of  larger  things  is 
evidently  a  very  much  more  difficult  and  elaborate  process,  the  patterns  being  made  in 

pieces  so  that  they  can 
be  taken  apart  in  the 
moulds.  Here,  for  in- 
stance, we  have  a  pat- 
tern and  a  mould  for  an 
ornamental  pillar  for  a 
building,  and  some  of 
the  panels  are  merely 
held  on  by  pins,  so  that 
after  it  is  in  the  mould 
the  pins  can  be  taken 
out,  and  the  box  body 
of  the  pattern  can  be 
lifted  out  without  disturb- 
ing the  moulded  pan- 
els, which  are  taken  out 
afterwards.  The  pipes,, 
whose  ends  you  see  stick- 
ing out  at  the  end  of  the 
mould  at  G,  are  for  let-, 
ting  out  the  gases  gener- 
ated by  the  molten  iron, 
which  would,  if  it  did 
not  have  a  free  vent, 
cause  an  explosion  in  the 
mould.  Very  large  castings  are  often  made  in  moulds  that  are  built  up  of  brickwork, 
merely  covered  an  inch  or  two  thick  with  loam,  which  is  swept  into  shape  by  the  edges 
of  boards  that  are  given  a  profile  to  correspond  to  the  shape  the  casting  is  to  be. 
These  boards  are  called  "sweeps,"  because  they  are  swept  around  the  mould,  and  some- 
times swing  from  a  central  column. 

If  we  break  a  casting  after  it  is  cold  we  find  that  it  looks  more  or  less  granulated 
or  crystallized,  like  loaf  sugar ;  and  we  may  find  upon  proper  inspection  that  these  crys- 
tals are  of  an  eight-sided  form,  just  as  we  might  imagine  to  be  formed  by  two  square 
pyramids  placed  with  their  bases  together.  Curiously  enough  too,  these  crystals  so  form 
themselves  as  to  be  lengthways  to  the  direction  in  which  the  heat  passes  out  of  the 
molten  metal  as  it  cools,  so  that  in  every  differently  shaped  piece  of  work  the  crystals 


MOULDING   A    BUILDING   COLUMN. 


THE    GRAIN    OF    CAST-IRON. 


55 


are  arranged  differently.  In  a  perfect  crystal  of  iron  all  the  lines  joining  opposite 
angles  are  of  equal  length,  and  at  right  angles  to  each  other  ;  but  as  the  heat  passes 
out  of  the  casting  through  the  top  of  the  mould,  the 
crystals  arrange  themselves  perpendicular  to  the  cast- 
ing as  it  lays  in  the  mould,  and  this  often  causes  the 
casting  to  be  weakened,  because  the  crystals  do  not 
join  properly  in  the  corners  and  angles.  At  1  we  here 
see  a  group  of  iron  crystals,  among  which  one  has  suc- 
ceeded in  assuming  its  natural  form.  At  2  is  an  end 
view  of  a  broken  casting  of  a  square  bar.  At  3  is  a 
similar  view  of  a  rectangular  bar,  the  diagonal  lines 
being  in  each  case  lines  of  weakness. 

In  all  the  examples  the  pieces  of  circular  form 
are  shown  to  have  the  crystals  joined  more  closely  at 
the  centre,  and  it  is  plain  that  they  are  for  equal 
weights  the  strongest,  and  this  is  why  you  see  the 
castings  for  modern  machines  have  as  few  sharp  cor- 
ners as  possible. 

As  we  retrace  our  steps  through  the  busy  foundry 
we  must  once  more  pass  that  mighty  steam-hammer, 
the  sight  of  which  is  not  easily  forgotten,  as  it  steadily 
and  unfailingly  does  the  work  of  many 
men    in    such   a   quiet  yet   giant-like 
fashion  that  it   is   difficult   to   realize 
how   much  it   is   doing,    though   easy 
enough  to  believe  that  such  a  power- 
ful machine  as  this  must,  since  its  in- 
troduction, have  effected  a  very  great 
revolution    among    ironworkers,    who, 
before  this  monster  assistant,  had  but 
the  helve  hammer  to  aid  them. 

This  helve  hammer  was  simply  a 
pole  fastened  securely  at  one  end,  and 
having  at  the  other  the  hammer,  which 
was  set  in  a  swinging  motion  by  foot 
pressure  applied  on  the  downward 
stroke,  the  elasticity  of  the  pole  act- 
ing to  lift  the  hammer  up  again  after 
the  blow  was  struck.  For  many  years 
this  primitive  appliance  was  all  the 

f  rr  THE  GEAIN   OF   CAST-IEON. 

blacksmith  had  for  striking  the  heavi- 
est blows,   but  it  would  surprise  you  to  see  what  large  pieces  of  iron  could  be  forged 
with  it. 


00  THE    WONDERLAND    OF    WORK. 

Here  we  have  a  modern  form  of  the  helve  or  trip  hammer.  The  two  lugs  or 
projections  (a)  on  the  shaft  (G)  striking,  as  the  shaft  revolves,  against  a  lug  on  the  end 
of  the  wooden  beam  (E).  The  wheel  is  for  the  belt  or  strap  that  drives  the  hammer. 
The  shapes  of  the  dies  are  made  to  suit  the  work,  or  plain  flat-faced  dies  may  be  used  for 
simple  forgings.  Trip-hammers  are  noisy  fellows,  but  they  are  very  efficient  in  skilful 


A   TKIP-HAMMER. 


hands,  as  will  be  seen  by  a  very  curious  feat  that  may  be  performed  with  them,  which 
is  to  take  a  bar  of  cold  wrought-iron  and  hammer  it  so  quickly  that  it  will  actually  get  red- 
hot  from  the  heat  caused  by  the  hammer  blows. 

There  are  many  different  forms  of  trip-hammers,  some  having 
springs  and  some  rubber  cushions  to  give  the  hammer  a  dead  blow, 
as  it  is  called,  and  prevent  noise.  Here,  for  instance,  is  a  power- 
hammer,  as  it  is  called,  in  which  the  hammer  is  slung  from  a  spring 
by  leather  bands,  and  a  crank  pulls  the  spring  up  and  down,  and 
causes  the  hammer  to  reverse  its  motion  easily,  while  it  is  quite  free 
when  it  strikes  its  blow,  for  which  reason  it  is  called  a  dead  stroke 
power-hammer,  the  word  "power"  meaning  that  it  is  driven  by  a 
belt.  In  former  times  these  hammers  were  used  to  roughly  block 
out  the  work  only,  but  nowadays  they  are  used  to  finish  it  com- 
plete, even  though  it  be  of  quite  intricate  form,  giving  to  it  a  black 
polished  finish  that  is  finer  than  can  possibly  be  given  with  the 
blacksmith's  hand  tools. 
Much  of  the  work  done  under  the  trip-hammer  requires  a  great  deal  of  ingenuity  as 
well  as  of  skill  to  make  it,  as  we  may  see  by  taking  as  an  example  a  common  four-tined 


POWEE-HAMMEE. 


AN    EXCELLENT    FORGING    PROBLEM. 


MAKING    A    STABLE    FORK. 


stable  fork,  to  make  which  the  blacksmith  is  given  a  piece  of  rectangular  steel  5f  inches 

long,  If  inches  wide,  and  half  an  inch  thick. 

This  is  a  queer-shaped  piece  of  steel  to  forge  a  stable  fork  out  of,  but  it  is  easily  ancl 

quickly  done.  First,  the  blacksmith  forges  down  and 
rounds  up  one  end  as  at  A,  then  he  cuts  a  split  through 
at  B,  and  opens  out  the  split  so  as 
to  form  two  legs  ;  next  he  forges 
a  recess  at  c,  cuts  two  splits  as 
at  D  D,  and  opens  out  the  split 

pieces,  thus  forming  four  legs,  E  E  and  F  F.  He 
draws  out  the  two  tines  E  E,  and  afterwards  the  two 
tines  F  F,  and  bends  them  around  into  shape,  produc- 
ing the  finished  article  as  you  see  it. 

If  you  go  over  this  interesting  process  again  you 
will  be   able    to  i—  i 

J   L 


THE  FIRST   STAGE. 


observe  one  fact 
that  is  very  im- 
portant in  so 


^ 


THE    SECOND    STAGE. 


THE    FINISHED    FORK. 


slender  a  tool  as  a  fork,  which  is  that  the  grain  of  the 
steel  runs  lengthways  throughout  every  part  of  the 
fork.  But  you  may  not  have  heard  that  steel  has  a 
grain,  and  so  we  may  as  well  explain  how  it  gets  it. 
"Well,  when  an  ingot  of  steel  is  cast,  it  is  composed  of 
crystals,  and  as  the  ingot  is  rolled  or  forged  into  long 
bars  these  crystals  are  lengthened  out  in  one  direction 
only,  spreading  along  the  bar  length,  and  it  is  found 
that  the  bar  is  stronger  across  the  grain  than  it  is  in  a 
direction  along  or  with  it.  Now  you  will  observe  that 
in  our  stable  fork  the  process  of  shaping  and  forging 

has  been  such  that  if 
it  broke  anywhere  it 
would  have  to  be 
done  across  the  grain. 
A  great  deal  of 
small  work  is  forged 
under  the  drop-ham- 
mer, which  is  com- 

posed of  an  iron  frame,  carrying  at  the  top  a  pair  of  gripping  rolls,  driven  by  a  pulley, 
A  long  plank  reaches  up  from  the  top  hammer  and  passes  between  the  gripping  rolls, 
which,  after  raising  the  hammer,  release  it  and  let  it  fall  to  strike  the  blow,  whose  force 
depends  upon  how  high  the  hammer  was  lifted  before  being  released.  The  work  may  be 
forged  with  a  plain-faced  hammer  and  anvil  block,  or  between  dies,  which  form  it  to  the 
required  shape.  But  obviously  for  very  heavy  work  the  trip  an4  drop  hammers  are  too 


THE    THIRD    STAGE. 


THE   FOURTH    STAGE. 


58 


THE    WONDERLAND    OF    WORK. 


puny  and  light,  and  the  massive  steam-hammer  comes  in  to  play,  the  heavy  blows  shaking 
the  ground  beneath  your  feet,  although  you  may  stand  forty  feet  away.  But  you  must 
not  suppose  that  steam-hammers,  are  used  for  very  large  work  alone,  for  they  are  sharp 
competitors  with  the  trip-hammer,  even  on  small  work,  and  as  much  or  more  skill  is 

required  to  use  them. 

Here,  for  example,  is  what  has  been 
considered  a  very  skilful  example  of  steel 
forging  under  the  small  steam-hammer. 
It  is  a  rope  "socket  " — that  is,  a  socket  for 
holding  the  ends  of  the  wire  rope  on  the 
New  York  and  Brooklyn  Bridge  ;  and  this 
is  how  it  was  made.  The  blacksmith  took 


A   DROP    HAMMEB. 


THE    FINISHED    ROPE    SOCKET. 

a  bar  of  steel  and  punched  into  it  a  hole  at 
A.  Then  he  took  two  curved  fullers  and 
cut  two  gashes,  one  at  B  and  another  at  c. 
These  gashes  he  widened  out  with  a  second 
fuller,  and  cut  the  piece  off  from  the  bar  at 
D.  Both  ends  of  the  pieces  then  looked  as 

&GG  ^    at    E      &nd    ^    ^^    OUt    fil>St   OI1G 


end  into  the  shape  at  E,  and  then  the  other, 

thus  forming  two  wings.  Then  he  put  the  forging  into  a  die-block  (G),  drove  in  a  plug 
or  punch  (H)  to  enlarge  the  hole  and  make  it  taper,  and  then  bent  up  the  wings.  All  he 
had  to  do  then  was  to  put  in  a  mandril  (i)  and  two  wedge-pieces  (j  and  K),  to  keep  the 
hole  from  closing  up,  and  dress  the  whole  forging  to  finished  shape.  This,  you  see,  is  quite 
a  straightforward  process,  and  yet  what  a  number  of  forms  this  simple  piece  of  work 
passed  through  to  transpose  it  into  the  required  shape  !  Some  of  these  sockets  weighed 


FORGING    UNDER    THE    STEAM-HAMMER. 


59 


as  much  as  80  pounds,  and  it  was  thought  so  difficult  a  forging  to  make  that  several  good 
blacksmiths  declined  to  undertake  their  manufacture. 


MAKING   A    EOPE    SOCKET. 


THE    FIRST    STAGE. 


THE    FIRST    SWAGE 


THE    SECOND    SWAGE. 


THE    FOURTH    STAGE. 


THE    SECOND    STAGE. 


THE    FIFTH    STAGE. 


Standing  at  the  great  open  doors  of  the  blacksmith's  shop,  where  the  ponderous 
steam-hammers  are  at  work,  we  shall  see  that  the  scrap-iron,  as  it  is  termed,  is  brought 
back  to  be  forged  into  blooms,  to  be  used  in  making  new  forgings.  Here,  for  instance, 


A  FLLE  OF  SCKAP-IHQN. 


FORGING  A  BLOOM. 


you  see  a  pile  of  scrap  ready  for  the  furnace.     It  is  piled  upon  a  piece  of  board  half  an 
inch  thick,  about  10  inches  wide,  and  16  inches  long,  and  is  composed  of  selected  scrap, 


60  THE    WONDERLAND    OF    WORK. 

such  as  the  clippings  of  boiler  plates,  old  rivets,  bolts,  and  horseshoes.  It  goes  to  the 
furnace,  and  is  heated  to  a  welding  heat.  In  order  to  enable  it  to  be  handled,  it  is 
welded  to  what  is  called  a  porter  bar,  which  has  a  crank,  by  which  the  bloom  can  be 
turned  over  and  over  during  the  process  of  forging.  "When  completed  the  porter  bar  is  cut 
•off,  leaving  the  bloom,  which  has  rounded  and  ragged-looking  ends,  arid  a  surface  full  of 

lines  that  look  like  cracks,  but  which  simply  show  where 
the  pieces  of  the  pile  joined  one  another.  These  blooms 
are  again  welded  together  to  make  larger  pieces  of  work, 
which  is  of  all  the  better  quality  for  having  been  made  of 
selected  scrap,  for  wrought-iron  is  one  of  the  very  few  things 
we  have  that  improves  by  being  worked  up  over  and  over 
BLOOMS  again.  The  long  bars  of  iron  you  see  in  the  blacksmith's 

shop  piled  in  racks  ready  to  cut  up  for  use,  however,  are 

made  uniform  in  size  and  true  to  shape  by  passing  them  through  the  revolving  rolls  of  a 
rolling-mill ;  and  I  may  tell  you  that  a  good  deal  of  forging  is  done  by  rolls  having  pro- 
jecting pieces  on  them,  in  which  are  cut  indentations  having  the  shape  the  forging  is  to  be. 
Only  comparatively  thin  and  light  pieces,  such  as  knife-blades  or  the  leaves  of 
carriage  springs,  can  be  forged  in  this  way.  In  whatever  way  a  piece  of  work  is  done, 

you  will  always  find  a  good  sound  reason 
for  it ;  and  in  this  case  I  may  tell  you 
that  the  impressions  are  sunk  in  the  pro- 
jecting pieces  to  avoid  having  to  pass  the 
work  entirely  through  the  rolls,  because 
when  these  pieces  are  out  of  the  way, 
which  they  will  be  as  the  rolls  revolve, 
the  smith  can  put  the  bar  through  them, 

FOBGING  IN   BOLLS.  RIld    UP    ^^    *     St°P>     S°    ^^    ^^^     the 

projecting  pieces  and  dies  meet  the  work 
they  push  it  back  to  the  workman  while  squeezing  it  into  shape. 

The  blacksmith  must  be  a  man  of  decision  and  quick  perception,  as  well  as  being 
strong  and  active,  for  his  work  presents  new  phases  at  every  moment,  and  he  must  act 
promptly,  because  if  he  heats  the  iron  too  often  without  well  working  it  its  strength  is 
ruined,  and  it  will  sometimes  fall  to  pieces  as  he  lays  it  on  his  anvil.  He  must  therefore 
do  nearly  all  his  thinking  while  the  work  is  in  the  fire,  for  as  soon  as  it  is  on  the  anvil  he 
must,  as  the  old  adage  says,  "  strike  while  the  iron  is  hot,"  and  so,  as  you  see,  whether 
the  blows  are  light  or  heavy  ones,  the  brawny  anus  must  repeat  them  as  rapidly  as  they 
can  be  delivered. 

The  forgings  that  we  see  in  the  large  blacksmith's  shop  are  usually  rough  because 
they  are  afterward  finished  to  shape  in  various  kinds  of  metal-cutting  machines,  but  many 
light  forgings  are  made  clean  and  shapely,  having  a  black-looking  finish  that  is  very 
pleasing  to  the  eye.  In  order  to  produce  this  finish  the  scale  that  forms  on  the  outside 
of  the  iron  when  it  is  made  hot  enough  to  forge  easily  must  be  cleaned  off  before  the 
forging  is  done,  and  for  the  final  finishing  the  iron  is  not  heated  above  a  blood-red  heat, 


NASMYTH    AXD    HIS    STEAM-HAMMER. 


61 


and  the  forging  is  continued  until  the  iron  is  down  to  a  low  black  heat.  There  are, 
you  must  know,  a  great  many  kinds  of  wrought-iron,  and  the  blacksmith  must  be  careful 
in  its  selection  for  some  kinds  of  work.  Among  the  most  ductile  and  softest  of  irons 
are  Swedish  and  Norway,  which  may  be  tied  in  a  knot  while  cold  without  breaking. 
Low  Moor  iron  is  an  English  iron  celebrated  for  its  toughness  and  strength,  and  Burden's 
best  is  a  superior  quality  of  American  iron. 

As  we  linger  once  more  to  watch  these  men  standing  in  the  red-hot  glare  cast  about 
it  by  the  mass  of  white-red  iron  they  are  placing  on  the  anvil-block,  we  are  reminded  of 
Nasmyth,  the  improver  and  patentee  of  the  first  huge  hammer  of  this  kind,  concerning  the 
uses  of  which  a  great  authority  says : — "  It  has  given  an  impetus  to  the  manufacture  of 
iron,  and  afforded  facilities  for  the  welding  of  large  blocks  of  malleable  iron  that  could 
not  be  accomplished  by  the  tilt  and  Helve  hammers  formerly  in  use.  We  have  only  to 
instance  the  forging  of  the  stern- 
posts  and  cut-waters  of  iron  ships, 
the  paddle-wheels  and  screw-shafts 
of  our  ocean  steamers  (some  of 
them  weighing  upwards  of  twenty 
tons)  to  appreciate  the  value  as  well 
as  the  intensity  of  action  of  the 
steam-hammer/'  . 

When  Nasmyth  was  but  a 
little  lad,  the  youngest  of  a  family 
of  ten,  nothing  delighted  him  more 
than  to  spend  his  half -holidays  and 
spare  moments  in  a  neighbouring 
forge  that  belonged  to  the  father  of  one  of  his  schoolfellows.  The  boy  did  not  merely  go 
staring  and  wandering  aimlessly  here  and  there,  but  was  always  intently  watching  and  trying 
to  understand  the  different  processes  through  which  the  metal  passed,  learning  all  the  details 
of  the  moulding,  casting,  forging,  and  smithing  work  going  on  about  him,  so  that  when, 
after  long  years  of  hard  work  and  self-denial,  he  became  exceedingly  prosperous,  he  was  glad 
to  remember  how  much  he  had  learnt  in  those  days,  and  often  declared  that  the  time  spent 
in  the  different  small  shops  connected  with  that  foundry  was  the  true  and  only  apprentice- 
ship of  his  life.  No  bad  apprenticeship  either  for  such  a  clever,  industrious  lad,  "  with 
eyes,"  and  determined  to  understand  as  well  as  to  see. 

Not  only  is  Nasmyth's  mighty  steam-hammer  worth  watching  and  wondering  at,  but 
some  of  his  words  are  worth  remembering ;  for  instance,  when,  addressing  young  workers,  Le 
said  : — « If  I  Were  to  try  to  compress  into  one  sentence  the  whole  of  the  experience  I  have 
gained  during  an  active  and  successful  life,  and  offer  it  to  young  men  as  a  rule  and  certain 
receipt  for  success  in  any  station,  it  would  be  comprised  in  these  words — ' Duty  frst, 
pleasure  second.'  From  what  I  have  seen  of  young  men  and  their  after-progress,  I  am 
satisfied  that  what  is  generally  termed  'bad  fortune/  'ill-luck/  and  'misfortune/  is  in  nine 
cases  out  of  ten  simply  the  result  of  inverting  the  above  maxim.  Such  experience  as  I  have 
liad  convinces  me  that  absence  of  success  arises  in  the  great  majority  of  cases  from  want  of 


CASTING    SMALL    OBJECTS. 


H 
CG 


WATEE-MININQ    IN    SWEDEN.  63 

self-denial  and  want  of  common-sense,  the  worst  of  all  maxims  being,  '  Pleasure   first,  work 
and  duty  second/ ''      Good  advice,  and  well  worth  consideration  surely. 

Perhaps  the  place  where  we  might  least  expect  to  find  iron  literally  growing  is  in 
the  beds  of  lakes  and  rivers ;  yet  such  lake  ores  exist  in  great  profusion  in  Sweden, 
more  especially  in  Smaland,  where  the  strange  "water-mining"  keeps  many  people  busily 
employed  at  certain  seasons  of  the  year.  Though  all  this  iron  can  be  smelted  in  the 
ordinary  way,  there  are  several  varieties  and  qualities  to  be  found.  There  is  the  hard 
and  heavy  " pearl "  ore,  which  has  to  be  raked  up  from  muddiest  depths;  the  "money1" 
ore,  so  called  from  its  fancied  resemblance  to  coin,  but  it  is  not  of  a  very  good  quality; 
the  greenish  "  gunpowder,"  lying  in  close,  heavy  grains  among  the  sands  from  which  it 
seems  loth  to  separate;  and  the  "burr,"  thought  to  resemble  the  head  of  the  wild 
burdock  flower,  and  which  lies  so  light  and  spongy  on  the  grassy  beds  far  out  of  sight  in 
the  depths  of  those  picturesque  lakes  for  which  Sweden  is  unrivalled. 

All  these  ores,  mixed  with  many  impurities  which  have  to  be  carefully  extracted,  are 
to  be  found  about  the  reedy  banks  or  on  the  slopes  of  shallows.  Up  the  deeper  waters 
they  usually  lie  spread  in  layers  of  from  twelve  to  two  hundred  yards  long,  but  never  so 
as  to  meet  a  strong  current ;  and,  strangely  enough,  the  ores  vary  according  to  their  position 
in  a  stream.  Thus  at  its  commencement  "gunpowder"  maybe  met  with;  then  "pearl/' 
"  money ,"  and  "  cake  "  will  be  turned  up  by  the  industrious  explorer,  who,  could  he  succeed  in 
carrying  all  these  away  with  him,  would  not  exhaust  the  wonderful  mine,  which  in  time  will 
once  more  be  rich  with  just  such  another  store  of  this  treasure  among  minerals,  that  learned 
folks  therefore  surmise  must  be  of  an  infusorial  origin.  In  the  short  and  pleasant  summer 
time  a  great  deal  of  ore  is  dragged  up  from  the  depths  by  dredgers  in  boats  floating  on 
the  surface  of  the  lakes ;  but  when  autumn  touches  the  waters  with  its  icy  hand, 
workers  well  practised  in  the  search  come  out  to  prospect  for  iron,  which  they  do  by 
making  small  holes  in  the  ice,  and  then  feeling  about  beneath  it  with  the  end  of  a  long 
and  slender  pole  until  they  feel  that  they  are  in  a  promising  place. 

Two  men  are  usually  associated  in  this  search,  and  when  they  have  thus  found  a 
likely  spot  they  mark  out  a  certain  boundary  about  it  by  sticking  twigs  in  the  ice, 
which  gives  them  a  legal  right  to  work  in  this  place  during  the  bitter  winter  which  is 
near.  As  soon  as  the  ice  is  hard  and  safe  enough  for  their  purpose,  our  partners  take 
possession  of  their  "claim,"  as  a  digger  would  say,  and  set  to  work  in  earnest  by  first 
making  an  opening  of  about  a  yard  square,  and  through  this  letting  down  a  kind  of  iron 
sieve  or  perforated  plate  which  is  fixed  fast  to  a  long  rod.  Then  having  collected  all 
the  ore  they  can  drag  and  scrape  together  by  the  aid  of  a  long  rake,  they  push  it  on 
to  the  plate,  which  is  then  worked  up,  with  its  wet  contents,  mingled  ore,  mud,  sand,  and 
clay.  To  cleanse  this  mass  somewhat,  it  is  put  qn  another  perforated  tray,  which  is  lowered 
a  very  little  way  into  the  water,  where  it  is  shaken  and  worked  about  until  a  great  deal 
of  the  rubbish  which  came  up  is  washed  away,  and  the  ore  left  comparatively  clean  and 
ready.  As  I  have  described  it  you  may  think  all  this  a  very  slow  performance.  Yet  it 
is  said  that  when  they  are  working  a  good  hole,  two  hardy  strong  men  can  sometimes 
collect  as  much  as  a  ton  and  a  half  of  ore  in  a  day,  and  that  in  one  year  22,000  tons 
of  bog  and  lake  ore  were  thus  collected  in  Sweden  alone. 
i 


64 


THE    WONDERLAND    OF    WORK. 


But  our  really  "  precious  metal,"  though  it  is  not  so  termed,  is  usually  found  hidden 
away  underground,  and  not  under  water,  in  combination  with  various  earthy  substances. 
When  found  it  presents  but  a  dark,  unpromising  outside.  In  this  state  it  is  known  as 
"ironstone,"  and  its  quality  varies  according  to  the  country  and  district  in  which  it 
lies — some  being  much  richer  than  others  in  pure  iron.  Sometimes  this  "  stone "  contains 
clay,  but  no  lime ;  sometimes  lime,  but  no  clay ;  sometimes  even  a  small  modicum  of 
coal;  but  at  any  rate  it  contains  a  proportion  of  water.  Flint,  sulphur,  and  carbonic  acid  are 
almost  sure  to  be  present  in  the  ironstone,  which  is  usually  discovered  in  beds  of  varying 


A    FAMILY    OF   SWEDISH   PEASANTS   PROSPECTING    FOB    LAKE   ORE. 

thicknesses,  and  differing  very   much   in  position;    for   sometimes   they    come  cropping  or 
"basseting"  right  out  of  the  earth's  surface,  at  others  sinking  far  below  it. 

It  is  worth  while  noting  the  different  appearance  presented  by  workers  at  the  several 
iron-mines,  for  that  will  tell  us  the  nature  of  the  ore  below.  Those  whose  business  is  with 
the  "  argillaceous  "  or  clayey  ironstone  of  Derbyshire,  for  instance,  look  as  dingy  and  black 
as  the  men  working  in  coal-pits  ;  while  those  employed  about  the  shallow  or  open  mines  more 
nearly  resemble  our  ordinary  railway  navvies.  But  if  we  are  in  the  hematite  districts,  such 
as  the  Forest  of  Dean,  Ulverstone,  Cornwall,  North  Wales,  or  Ireland,  we  shall  meet  with 
miners  not  pleasant  to  look  at — their  clothes,  faces,  and  hands  being  deeply  stained  and 
smeared  with  the  dense  red  peroxide  of  the  ore  amon<?  which  they  are  working.  England 
is  well  supplied  with  these  same  valuable  red  hematites,  ores  rich  in  iron,  and  which  are 
often  smelted  with  poorer  ores.  There  is  the  hard  "  specular,"  or  "  iron  glance ; "  the  dull 
"  kidney/'  found  in  Cumberland  ;  the  "  micaceous,"  met  with  mostly  in  South  Devon.  Even 


VARIOUS    IKON    ORES. 


65 


the  intense  red  ochre,  from  which  the  red,  yellow,  and  brown  ochres  and  umbers  in  our 
paint-boxes  are  prepared,  are  but  clayey  members  of  the  great  hematite  family. 

The  poorest  of  these  ores  are  the  "  clay  ironstones,"  such  as  are  found  in  abundance  in 
South  Wales  and  Staffordshire  ;  yet  they  are  very  important,  as  they  furnish  nearly  two-thirds 
of  the  yield  of  British  iron.  Being  closely  connected  with  our  coal-formations,  they  are 
worked  cheaply,  because  of  the  plentiful  supply  of  fuel  and  limestone  near  at  hand.  The 
most  useful  and  valuable  of  their  varieties  is  the  common  "  black  band/'  which,  being 
extremely  bituminous,  can  be  easily  calcined  without  fuel. 

Among  the  finest  kinds  of  iron  we  should  have  given  the  first  place  to  the  magnetite,  or 
magnetic  iron  ore,  such  as  is  smelted  with  wood  in  the  mines  of  Danemora,  and  of  which 


THE    LARGE    BLOCK    OF    IRON    OP    THE    ISLAND    OF    DISCO,    WITH    THE    CHAINS    THAT    SEBVED    TO    TRANSPORT    IT   TO 
STOCKHOLM,    WITH    FIVE    OTHER   BLOCKS    OF   SMALLER    SIZE.       (From  a  Photograph.) 

the  Sheffield  cutlers  make  their  best  steel  knives,  razors,  and  sharp  instruments.  This  ore, 
which  is  found  in  immense  masses  in  some  parts  of  the  world,  forms  the  substance  of  hills,  and 
even  mountains.  In  Canada  it  occurs  in  irregular  beds  of  considerable  thickness,  while  in  the 
vicinity  of  the  valley  of  Andonirac  it  occupies  a  space  of  twenty  miles  in  length  by  one  broad. 
In  our  own  land  or  in  France  it  occurs  but  very  rarely. 

There  may  be  several  beds  or  seams  of  iron-ore  lying  one  below  another,  but  the  merits  of 
each  is  well  known  to  the  miners,  who  speak  of  it  by  a  distinctive  name  or  odd  local  designa- 
tion, and  these  beds  of  ore  are  often  separated  from  each  other  by  masses  of  different 
minerals.  When  the  "  raw  mine,"  or  ironstone,  has  been  "  blasted  "  or  loosened  by  means 
of  gunpowder  from  its  place  in  the  bed  where  nature  had  tucked  it  so  snugly,  it  is  brought 
up  to  the  surface  of  the  earth,  piled  on  low  hand-carts  or  trolleys,  and  carried  away  to  be 
roasted.  This  used  to  be  always  done  by  first  burning  the  stone  in  the  open  air,  but  now  it  is 
generally  dropped  at  once  into  the  tall  blast-furnace. 


QQ  THE    WONDEELAND    OF    WOEK. 

While  it  was  the  invariable  practice  to  "roast"  the  stone  before  putting  it  into  the 
furnace,  the  neighbourhood  of  such  a  place  presented  a  more  desolate  appearance  even  than 
it  does  now,  for  there  were  always  great  rough  heaps  of  dark  cinder-refuse  and  slag  to  be 
seen  in  every  direction.  The  roasting  took  place  in  the  open  air,  to  effect  which  unsavoury 
cookery  a  huge  layer  of  "  raw  mine "  was  piled  upon  as  large  a  layer  of  coals ;  then 
more  ironstone,  then  more  coals,  and  so  on,  until  the  tall  pile  rose  some  six  feet  high ;  the 
whole  was  then  closely  covered  and  packed  in  with  a  thatch  of  wet  small-coal,  to  keep  up 
the  heat.  When  this  edifice  was  completed  a  fire  was  lighted  at  one  of  the  lower  ends; 
this,  I  need  not  tell  you,  soon  spread  and  gathered  strength,  being  allowed  to  burn 
slowly  for  some  time,  roasting  and  decomposing  the  ore,  and  drawing  out  the  sulphur  and 
water  contained  in  the  mass. 

Perhaps  the  question  here  suggests  itself,  "Why  does  smelting  remove  the  impurities 
which  are  always  mixed  up  with  iron-ore  ? "  Chemistry  tells  us  it  is  through  "  affinity," 
or  a  tendency  certain  things  have  to  combine  with  each  other.  Thus  the  lime  and  clay 
contained  in  this  rough  ore  have,  as  we  may  say,  a  greater  liking  or  affinity  for  each 
other  than  for  the  iron  they  are  with;  therefore,  if  the  ore  be  of  the  usual  clayey  kind, 
the  smelter  adds  a  certain  proportion  of  limestone  to  it;  but  if  the  ore  be  a  calcareous  or 
limy  sort,  such  as  that  abounding  in  the  Forest  of  Dean,  for  instance,  he  adds  clay  as 
a  flux,  or  filter,  to  help  the  flow  of  liquid  iron  from  the  raw  ore  which  contains  it. 

When  timber  was  plentiful,  and  the  uses  of  coal  almost  unknown  in  England,  such 
ores  were,  of  course,  always  smelted  with  charcoal,  as  most  of  them  still  are  in  countries 
where -wood  abounds  and  is  the  principal  fuel.  Of  course  nothing  could  be  better,  as  far 
as  the  quality  of  the  metal  produced  is  concerned ;  but  in  these  busy  times,  when  so  much 
iron  is  needed,  and  so  many  furnaces  burning,  our  trade  in  iron  and  steel  would  come  to  a 
sudden  standstill  were  it  not  for  the  coal  and  the  coke  that  aid  our  ironworkers  to  get 
through  tasks  so  much  more  rapidly,  yet  at  a  far  lower  rate,  than  of  old. 

To  see  the  great  change  that  has  taken  place  in  this  wide-spread  industry,  let  us  go 
back  to  those  good  old  times  and  our  now  busy  "Black  Country"  (so  called,  let  me 
remark,  not  from  its  dinginess,  but  from  the  supply  of  "  black-band "  ironstone  which 
spreads  in  every  direction).  At  the  time  I  would  return  to,  all  this  part  of  England  was  a 
little-visited  but  pleasant  green  wilderness.  In  its  woodland  recesses  hid  the  forest  deer, 
while  here  and  there  sheltered  a  hamlet  or  village  where  dwelt  a  few  peasants,  wood- 
cutters or  weavers  mostly.  If  there  was  a  convenient  stream  or  a  commanding  promontory 
near,  there  would  most  likely  stand  a  monastery  or  a  castle,  of  which  we  can  view  the 
remains,  for  if  we  visit  our  midland  counties  we  shall  find  that  they  form  the  very  centre  of 
a  busy  hive  of  industry ;  yet  in  the  densest  and  dingiest  of  the  busy  districts  we  shall  meet 
with  the  bare  grey  ruins  of  many  an  ancestral  hall,  and  among  others,  that  of  the  Dudleys, 
whose  domains  extended  far  and  near  in  those  old  days,  when  they  were  surrounded  by  a  thick 
and  pleasant  woodland,  musical  with  the  songs  of  birds;  now  the  neighbourhood  is  noisy 
with  the  clang  and  rattle  of  machinery,  and  dark  with  the  smoke  of  tall  chimney  and 
gloomy  furnace — true  signs  of  the  change  of  the  times. 

Yet  in  the  days  when  these  lords  were  so  powerful,  and  the  neighbourhood  so  lovely, 
all  was  not  as  pleasant  as  might  have  appeared  in  the  fair  midland  counties.  There  was 


SMELTING    WITH    COAL. 


67 


too  often  feud  and  lawless  raid  among  the  barons.  Thus  we  hear  of  one  bold  Dudley 
starting  off  on  a  dark  night,  at  the  head  of  a  hundred  and  forty  vassals  and  followers, 
armed  with  forest  bills,  long  staves,  and  bows,  to  surprise  and  drive  off  their  unsuspecting 
neighbours'  possessions,  in  the  form  of  many  kine  and  sheep  and  right  fat  oxen,  which 
were  captured  and  driven  in  triumph  to  the  stronghold  of  the  Dudleys.  No  doubt 
there  was  fine  feasting  on  the  return  of  the  venturous  company,  and  that  many  a  sheep 
and  mighty  joint  of  beef  was  cooked  on  those  huge  hearthstones  which  we  now  survey 
with  wonderment.  What  grand  old  times  these  must  have  been,  when  those  took  all  who 
had  the  power;  but  also  what  exceedingly  miserable  times  for  those  who  were  not  able  to 
keep  their  own  from  the  stronger  hand  uncontrolled  by  law,  justice,  or  humanity.  I 
much  prefer  thinking  of  a  later  period,  when  the  lords  of  Dudley  lived  more  peaceful 
lives,  and  obtained  steadier  revenues  from  the  iron-mines  lying  in  every  direction,  and 
yielding  any  quantity  of  ore,  for  which  there  was  a  steady  demand. 

But  now  a  great  drawback  began  to  appear  and  to  threaten  the  future  prosperity  of 
the  owners  of  the  mines.  The  ores  must  of  course  be  roasted  and  smelted  before  they 
could  yield  the  iron  hidden  in  their  depths ;  and  wood,  the  only  fuel  then  known, 
was  becoming  yearly  more  expensive  and  unattainable.  These  districts,  lately  so 
luxuriant  with  every  kind  of  timber,  were  gradually  assuming  a  bare  and  desolate 
appearance,  and  it  seemed  not  only  possible,  but  probable,  that  the  flames  of  those 
craving,  ever-hungry  furnaces  would  some  day  have  to  be  allowed  to  die  out  for  lack 
of  fuel;  though,  once  extinguished  from  such  a  cause,  who  could  say  whether  they 
would  ever  be  re-lighted,  or  what  use  or  profit  could  possibly  be  made  of  the  abundant 
ore,  which  already  gave  employment  to  many,  and  constituted  the  treasures  of  its  owners. 
About  the  time  when  this  stern  possibility  began  to  make  itself  very  obtrusive, 
the  then  peaceable  lord  and  master  of  this  rich  domain  had  a  kinsman  known  as  Dud 
Dudley — a  "  man  with  eyes  "  evidently,  for  it  appears  that  he  was  among  the  first  who, 
thinking  the  matter  seriously  over,  and  considering  what  preventive  or  remedy  might 
be  applied,  was  struck  with  the  idea  of  utilising  in  some  way  the  despised  coal  that  lay 
in  rich  abundance  but  all  neglected  and  valueless  under  his  feet.  He  at  length  pro- 
ceeded to  test  this  new  fuel  in  the  furnaces  which  had  hitherto  been  fed  only  with 
charcoal,  but  as  he  did  not  understand  the  right  way  to  burn  it,  and  as  the  furnaces 
were  not  properly  adapted  for  its  use,  the  ore  refused  to  melt,  and  the  coal  proved  a 
failure,  even  though  Dud  Dudley,  persuaded  that  his  idea  was  a  good  one,  spent  over 
forty  years  of  his  life  and  a  great  deal  of  money  in  attempting  to  perfect  it.  He 
was  an  unfortunate  man  who  never  lived  to  see  the  success  of  his  great  discovery, 
which  only  seemed  to  involve  him  in  trouble  and  expense.  Folks  treated  him  as  though 
he  was  more  mad  than  sane  for  attempting  such  a  thing  as  smelting  iron  with  coal. 
His  experiments  were  openly  mocked  at  and  opposed,  especially  by  the  master  charcoal- 
makers,  who  dreaded  lest,  in  case  of  success,  their  hitherto  nourishing  trade  should  be 
ruined.  Then,  too,  he  became  involved  in  the  great  civil  wars  of  the  period,  and  had 
other  things  to  think  of,  for  a  long  time,  being  harassed  by  many  political  and  private 
enemies.  Finally,  when  again  at  liberty  to  re-commence  his  smelting  experiments,  they 
produced  but  a  very  poor  result.  The  furnaces  he  constructed  being  much  too  email  for 


68  THE    WONDERLAND    OF    WORK. 

his  purpose,  the  crude  sulphur  contained  in  the  coal  was  brought  into  direct  contact 
with  the  ore,  which  so  injured  the  iron  it  fused  as  to  render  it  of  little  use,  and  the 
thing  was  pronounced  a  failure.  Wise  "men  of  metal "  declared  nothing  but  wood- 
charcoal  could  smelt  properly.  But  when  this  could  no  longer  be  obtained  in  anything 
like  the  necessary  quantity,  the  production  of  English  iron  grew  less  and  less,  and  before 
long  supplies  of  this  metal  had  to  be  bought  of  our  foreign  neighbours  at  a  high  price, 
though  it  lay  scattered  about  England  in  every  direction.  Thousands  of  pounds  were 
spent  in  purchasing  iron  of  the  Russians,  and  especially  of  the  Swedes,  whose  preparation 
of  this  ore  has  always  been,  and  is,  yet  unrivalled. 

Yet  Dud  Dudley  had  set  the  ball  rolling,  though  he  had  failed  in  producing  the 
desired  result.  Others  learnt  the  lesson  his  failure  taught.  The  plan  of  smelting  iron- 
ore  with  coal  was  tried  first  by  one,  then  by  another,  and  the  result  was  the  success  of 
the  famous  iron-works  at  Coalbrookdale,  in  Shropshire.  It  was  a  lovely  place  still, 
surrounded  with  luxuriant  timber-trees  which  were  fast  vanishing  in  the  furnaces,  when 
Abraham  Darby,  an  ironworker  from  Dudley,  seeing  what  was  going  on  around  and 
the  ruin  threatening  English  trade,  determined  if  possible  to  work  out  that  problem 
which  had  cost  poor  Dud  so  much  time  and  money  and  trouble  long  ago,  although  he 
had  worked  in  a  district  particularly  suited  for  his  purpose  if  he  could  have  carried  it 
out,  for  there  was  to  be  found  every  necessary — iron-ore,  coal,  the  limestone  for  flux,  and 
even  the  refractory  fireclay  required  for  the  construction  of  the  brickwork  of  the  kind 
of  furnaces  he  should  have  built,  a  clay  now  so  valuable  that  it  is  employed  all  over 
the  kingdom  for  the  making  of  "pots"  in  glass-houses,  crucibles  for  cast  steel,  and 
other  industrial  purposes. 

Darby,  who  was  a  Quaker,  and  evidently  possessed  a  settled  determination  to  spare 
neither  cash  nor  trouble,  had,  no  doubt,  the  great  advantage  of  going  on  where  his 
unlucky  predecessor  left  off;  at  any  rate,  he  and  his  at  length  read  the  riddle,  and 
managed  at  last  to  smelt  their  ores  properly  with  coal,  or  rather  coke,  which  soon 
caused  steam-power  to  blow  the  fires  with  its  mighty  breath,  and  -lend  that  aid  which 
was  to  make  the  British  iron  trade  of  such  great  importance  to  the  world. 
Then  another  wonderful  stride  in  advance  was  made  in  this  great  industry,  when  in 
1826  a  clever  Lancashire  worker  announced  the  possibility  of  quickly  and  thoroughly 
converting  pig  or  rough  cast-iron,  such  ad  we  have  seen  lying  in  its  sandy  bed,  into 
good  malleable  wrought  or  bar  iron,  the  preparation  of  which  had  hitherto  been 
guch  a  slow  process  that  only  about  ten  tons  could  be  turned  out  weekly,  where  thirty 
years  later,  by  means  of  this  same  ingenious  Henry  Cort's  inventions  and  improvements, 
over  which  he  spent  £20,000  in  perfecting,  10,000  tons  were  produced  annually.  Up 
to  this  time  a  great  deal  of  money  had  been  paid  for  such  iron  to  those  foreigners  who, 
afflicted  by  no  lack  of  charcoal,  were  able  to  supply  it  in  abundance,  though  at  a  very 
high  price,  more  especially  in  war-time,  when  it  was  most  required.  It  was  slow  work, 
for  until  now  such  iron  had  been  hammered  at  the  rate  of  twelve  hours  for  thirty 
hundredweight;  now  by  means  of  grooved  rollers,  Cort's  invention,  workers  can  manu- 
facture some  fifteen  tons  in  the  same  time. 

But  next  came  the   same   clever   man's    great    invention   of   "  puddling/'  that  curious 


GRADUAL    IMPROVEMENTS. 


process  we  saw  carried  out  in  the  reverberatory  furnace.  It  was  easy  to  understand  that 
in  this,  as  the  pig-iron,  whatever  its  quality,  received  no  fresh  impurities,  but  left 
its  own  behind  and  came  out  malleable  and  good,  the  very  great  advantage  of  the 
process  must  be  that  inferior  ores,  such  as  are  found  in  Yorkshire  and  other  places, 
could  be  profitably  worked,  though  they  contain  phosphorus,  sulphur,  and  substances- 
that  cannot  be  completely  burnt  out  of  them  in  the  furnace,  or  otherwise  disposed  of. 
Next  came  another  step.  We  cannot  help  thinking  it  seems  as  though  all  inventory 


DUDLEY    BY    NIGHT. 


must  have  learned  to  ignore  the  meaning  of 
the  words  "impossibility"  and  "impracticable," 
by  which  most  of  their  grandest  inventions 
would  have  been  nipped  in  the  bud  had  they 
accepted  them  as  conclusive  verdicts,  not  always 
given  by  merely  ignorant  people,  but  by  those 
who  found  it  easy  to  settle  a  difficult  matter 
with  a  big  word.  And  yet,  however,  we  can  scarcely  wonder  at  the  incredulity  of  the 
"  iron "  public  when  one  among  them  stood  forth  and  gravely  proposed  to  convert  pig- 
iron,  such  as  we  have  described  it,  into  fluid,  malleable  metal,  and  to  do  this  not  only 
in  a  few  hours,  but  without  the  expensive  aid  of  additional  coal. 

This  did  seem  really  both  "  impossible  and  impracticable,"  for  all  the  heat  of  the  iron- 
workers' many  furnaces  had  as  yet  only  succeeded  in  rendering  the  said  pig  soft  enough 
to  bear  hammering  into  shape.  Here  I  must  explain,  in  as  straightforward  a  fashion  as 
I  know  how,  something  concerning  iron,  that,  as  we  have  seen,  comes  from  the  'blast- 
furnace in  a  highly-carbonised  and  impure  state,  which  must  be  completely  changed; 
this  cleansing  is  effected  by  the  singular  puddling  process,  the  decarbonisation  being 


70  THE    WONDEELAND    OF    WOBK. 

caused  by  the  exposure  of  the  heated  metal  to  atmospheric  air,  for  the  oxygen  in  which 
the  carbon  has  a  great  affinity.  This  has  often  been  demonstrated  by  the  simple  experi- 
ment of  tying  a  large  nail  to  a  string,  heating  its  tip  until  it  is  white-hot,  and  then 
whirling  it  rapidly  round.  As  it  flies  it  burns  and  brightens,  scattering  a  circle  of  sparks, 
which  show  that  as  it  meets  the  air  combustion  is  taking  place  rapidly.  We  can  also  see 
this  same  process  going  on  if  we  watch  the  blacksmith  at  work  at  his  forge,  where,  as 
he  hammers  his  horseshoes,  he  forces  a  powerful  blast  of  air  down  into  and  on  to  every 
particle  of  the  glowing  metal  he  is  banging  into  shape,  while  it  is  thus  receiving  a 
greater  heat  than  he  could  expose  it  to  in  any  other  way. 

Mr.  (now  Sir  Henry)  Bessemer's  idea  was  simply  that  of  using  this  same  air  for  the 
double  purpose  of  removing  the  carbon  and  increasing  the  temperature  at  one  operation. 
He  proposed  to  convert  pig  into  malleable  iron,  "  by  forcing  into  and  among  the  particles 
of  a  mass  of  molten  iron,  currents  of  air  or  gaseous  matter  containing,  or  capable  of 
evolving,  sufficient  oxygen  to  keep  up  the  combustion  of  the  carbon  contained  in  the 
iron  till  the  required  conversion  is  accomplished."  Here  you  have  his  plan  in  his  own 
plain  words,  which  I  think  the  youngest  of  my  readers  can  understand. 

The  great  difficulty  for  a  long  time  was  to  know  how  far  this  process  of  decarbonisation 
could  be  carried.  Many  experiments  failed;  though,  at  last,  when  success  was  attained, 
it  proved  to  be  a  discovery  of  the  greatest  value,  as  a  sort  of  semi-steel  can  now  be  made 
suitable  for  boilers,  roofs,  railway  lines,  and  other  objects  at  the  cost  of  about  one-fourth 
of  the  cast-steel  formerly  used  for  these  purposes,  and  far  more  durable  than  ordinary 
iron.  In  one  year  the  Bessemer  works  produced  over  900,000  tons  of  steel  ingots,  and 
600,000  tons  of  nails,  which  fact  shows  the  value  of  the  invention. 

But  perhaps  it  is  time  to  leave  our  explanations  concerning  the  Bessemer  steel,  and 
take  you  into  the  huge  works  at  Barrow-in-Furness,  where  you  will  see  it  in  almost  any 
quantity,  especially  in  the  form  of  rails  of  various  shapes,  ' '  converted  meta] "  having 
almost  supplanted  the  old-fashioned  iron  for  this  particular  purpose,  as  it  is  found  to  last 
six  times  as  long — no  slight  matter  in  a  country  that  boasts  of  having  twelve  thousand 
miles  of  railway,  and  that  in  the  year  1877  exported  234,000  tons  of  these  rails  to  other 
countries. 

As  we  enter  one  of  these  extensive  workshops,  we  shall  be  bewildered  by  strange 
sights  and  sounds.  Men  surely  of  a  salamandrine  breed,  for  they  mind  neither  heat  nor 
glare  as  they  "round  about  the  caldron  go/'  working  rod  in  hand  in  the  large  circular 
pits  sunk  deep  in  the  ground,  and  round  which  are  placed  a  number  of  iron  moulds, 
lined  with  some  kind  of  infusible  clay,  to  prevent  their  being  destroyed  at  once  by 
the  seething  contents  of  the  "converters,"  which  will  presently  be  poured  into  them. 

These  movable  converters,  of  which  there  are  two  to  every  pit,  above  which  they  are 
raised,  are  huge  oval  vessels,  which  can  be  swung  about  somewhat  in  the  fashion  of 
cannons.  Until  of  late,  they  were  filled  with  a  mixture  of  molten  pig  and  "spiegeleisen," 
or  Swedish  metal,  prepared  for  them  in  cupola  furnaces ;  but  now  the  iron  comes  direct  from 
the  blast-furnace  where  it  has  been  fused.  To  receive  this  flow  the  converter  is  tilted  at  a 
certain  angle ;  when  the  molten  supply  stops,  the  huge  pot  is  swung  up  again  into  a  horizontal 
position,  and  the  converting  or  blowing  begins,  noisily  enough.  For  now  a  tremendous 


THE    BESSEMER    PEOCESS.  71 

blast  of  air  is  forced  uj  into  the  seething-  contents  of  the  vessel  by  means  of  holes  and 
"  tuyeres ''  at  the  bottom  of  it — such  a  puff  of  wind  as  only  a  set  of  engines  representing 
the  united  strength  of  5,000  horses  could  produce.  The  result  is  something  wonderful.  But 
I  must  quote  Mr.  Bessemer's  own  description  of  this  strange  cookery : — "  When  the  process 
is  brought  into  full  activity,  small  though  powerful  jets  of  air  spring  upwards  through 
the  fluid  mass.  The  air,  expanding  in  volume,  divides  itself  into  globules,  or  bursts  violently 
upwards,  carrying  with  it  some  hundredweight  of  fluid  metal,  which  again  falls  into  the 
boiling  mass  below.  Every  part  of  the  apparatus  trembles  under  the  violent  agitation  thus 
produced ;  a  roaring  flame  rushes  from  the  mouth  of  the  vessel,  and,  as  the  process  advances, 
it  changes  its  violet  colour  to  orange,  and  finally  to  a  luminous  pure  white  flame.  The 
sparks,  which  at  first  were  large,,  like  those  of  ordinary  foundry  iron,  change  to  small 
hissing  points,  and  these  gradually  give  way  to  specks  of  soft  bluish  light,  as  the  state 
of  malleable  iron  is  approached." 

A  weird  sight,  before  which  most  dazzling  fireworks  would  fade  into  insignificance. 
After  this  mighty  blowing  has  been  going  on  for  some  time,  the  "  spiegeleisen "  is 
added  to  the  molten  iron,  and  the  whole  mixed  and  mingled  and  combined  thoroughly 
by  means  of  the  mighty  blast.  When  at  length  "converted"  enough,  the  liquid  is  poured 
into  a  monster  ladle,  which  in  turn  drops  it  into  the  many  moulds,  where  it  soon  cools 
into  solid  ingots  of  cast-steel,  which  we  next  meet  with  on  low  trucks,  which  boys  are 
wheeling  off  to  be  re-heated  in  gas-ovens,  and  delivered  over  to  the  tender  mercies  of 
monster  steam-hammers,  or,  more  likely  still,  to  be  squeezed  in  the  rail-mills,  whence, 
after  many  struggles,  the  flat  solid  block  of  white-hot  metal  will  emerge  in  the  form  of 
long  and  thin  bars  ready  for  home  use  or  exportation. 

This  thriving  neighbourhood  of  Barrow,  like  Cleveland-by-the-Tees,  is  an  illustration  of 
what  a  magic  change  industry  and  enterprise  can  effect  in  a  place.  Until  the  last  few  years 
it  was  a  poor,  shabby  fishing  village — pretty  enough,  but  unvisited,  and  almost  unknown. 
Its  scattered  and  illiterate  population  of  some  300  people  earned  a  scanty  livelihood  mostly 
by  fishing ;  their  tumble-down  houses  showed  signs  of  neglect  and  poverty ;  nothing  of 
interest  could  be  seen  near  the  place,  with  the  exception  of  the  ancient  ruin  of  an  abbey, 
whose  long-passed  inhabitants  must  have  led  a  most  solitary  life  in  the  "once  upon  a  time" 
when  they  flourished  in  this  out-of-the-world  spot,  which,  bounded  east,  west,  and  south  by 
the  sea,  was  then  almost  cut  off  from  the  rest  of  the  world,  giving  as  little  promise  of  ever 
becoming  the  home  of  progress  and  prosperity  as  could  well  be  imagined,  even  by  the  most 
sanguine.  Yet  this  rural  spot  has  changed  so  completely  that  surely  the  good  monks 
of  St.  Bernard,  could  they  peep,  would  never  recognise  it.  Broad  streets,  comfortable,  sub- 
stantial red  houses,  fine  docks,  and  the  busy  hum  of  a  thriving  population,  reckoned  to  be 
of  over  40,000  souls,  have  taken  the  place  of  solitude  and  silence;  and  all  this  strange 
and  unexpected  change  has  been  bi  ought  about  by  the  discovery  of  immense  supplies  of 
iron-ore — the  very  red  hematite  we  have  seen  cooking  by  hundreds  of  tons  at  a  time  (the 
annual  consumption  is  over  half  a  million  tons)  in  the  furnaces  of  the  great  Barrow  works. 

Not  that  the  iron-works  were  of  much  importance  when  they  were  first  commenced. 
Some  twenty  years  ago  there  were  but  three  blast-furnaces  where  now  we  count  sixteen,  and 
these  only  attempted  to  melt  the  crude  ore  and  produce  pig-iron,  while  now  they  turn  out 

3 


THE    WONDEKLAJSID    OF    WORE. 


BESSEMER   STEEL    CONVERTER. 

endless  rails  (one  little  order  we  heard  of  was  for  10,000  tons  of  English  steel  rails,  required 
for  the  New  York  Central  Line),  and  plates  of  metal  for  ship-building  purposes.  Later  on 
it  was  discovered  that  the  hematite  found  in  the  neighbourhood  was  particularly  free  from 
phosphorus,  and  therefore  well  suited  for  conversion  into  steel  by  the  Bessemer  process. 
The  result  of  this  was  the  formation  of  a  large  company,  and  the  building  of  the  Barrow 
Iron  and  Steel  Works,  such  as  you  see  on  page  63. 

I  trust  that  by  now  I  need  not  point  out  that  the  long  row  of  solid  circular  buildings 
on  the  left  represent  smelting  or  blast  furnaces.  Those  long  strips  extending  in  front 
of  each  furnace  are,  as  you  guess,  not  the  gardens  they  appear  to  be,  but  straight 


THE    VALUE    OF    A    LITTLE    BIT    OF    STEEL. 


73 


stretches  of  sand,  which  form  the  beds  on  which  the  fiery  sow  and  her  litter  of  black, 
white,  and  grey  repose  when  the  different  "  floors "  are  tapped.  As  much  as  5,000  tons 
of  this  indigestible  kind  of  pork  has  been  turned  out  of  these  beds  in  one  week.  At 
these  works  all  the  trucks  containing  materials  required  for  fusion  are  carried,  or  rather 
drawn,  to  the  top  of  the  furnaces  by  means  of  winding  engines,  which  take  them  up 
those  slanting  bridges  to  the  opening  in  each  bell-shaped  furnace  (which  are  here  covered 
in),  and,  swiftly  tipping  the  load  of  ironstone,  flux,  and  fuel  into  the  receptacle,  send  the 
empty  cart  sliding  down  for  more,  the  demand  and  supply  apparently  never  ceasing. 

Those  solid  square  buildings  at  the  back  of  the  premises  contain  the  wonderful  engines 
which  produce  the  blast — their  work  is  equal  to  4,400  horse-power — and  further  back  still 
is  a  long  tube  containing  the  supply  of  hot  air  that  works  the  furnaces.  Beyond  are  terraces 
of  boilers,  which  supply  the  engines  with  steam.  These  boilers  are  not  heated  with  fuel, 
but  with  the  various  gases  produced  by  the  fusion  of  the  different  materials  which  we  know 
are  being  constantly  poured  into  the  blast-furnaces,  which  gases  pass  to  the  boilers  by 
means  of  pipes,  and  carry  immense  heat  with  them.  In  all  such  large  works  as  these, 
economy  is  studied  in  every  detail,  and  no  expense  is  spared  in  insuring  it. 

.Now  concerning  steel,  which,  as  we  know,  is  merely  iron  treated  with  carbon  in  a 
peculiar  way,  yet  differing  from  it  in  being  much  tougher,  and  possessing  a  far  greater  degree 
of  elasticity,  as  when  properly  tempered  it  can  be  bent  almost  double.  This  is  what  has 
made  it  so  useful  for  the  various  blades  our  Sheffield  cutlers  fashion.  This  flexibility  also 
makes  it  invaluable  to  the  steel-pen  maker,  who  uses  thousands  of  thin  plates,  which  he  cuts 
into  narrow  strips  and  stamps  into  shape,  and  for  the  numerous  details  of  watches,  clocks, 
and  machinery.  The  "  hair-spring "  of  a  watch  affords  the  best  illustration  of  the  value 
that  can  be  given  to  a  small  piece  of  steel  by  manual  labour,  as  4,000  hair-springs, 
though  weighing  scarcely  more  than  an  ounce,  may  cost  nearly  £1,000.  The  tiny 
pendulous  spring  of  a  watch  which  governs  the  vibration  of  the  balance  costs  a  few  pence, 
and  weighs  about  •£$  of  a  grain ;  yet  enough  raw  material  to  make  many  thousand  such 
springs  can  be  bought  retail  for  the  same  few  pence. 

Wonderfully  small  and  ingenious  things  have  been  made  out  of  this  unpromising-looking 
metal.  For  instance,  we  read  of  a  tiny  padlock  made  a  hundred  years  ago  by  one  James  Lee, 
which,  with  its  key,  did  not  weigh  as  much  as  a  silver  twopenny-piece.  The  same  man 
also  made  an  iron  lock  and  key  that  together  were  lighter  than  a  silver  penny.  Mr.  Chubb, 
of  "  lock  "  celebrity,  exhibited  a  patent  "  Detector "  set  in  a  ring,  the  lock  and  key  weighing 
sixteen  grains;  and  in  the  Exhibition  of  1851  there  was  shown  a  four-lever  padlock  only 
•fa  of  an  inch  in  diameter,  the  work  of  two  clever  boy  workers. 

If  we  ask  what  steel  is,  wise  folk  seem  somewhat  puzzled  to  explain,  beyond  that 
it  is  a  combination  of  iron  and  carbon ;  but  so  is  cast-iron,  and  so  is  even  wrought-iron. 
All  in  different  proportions,  certainly,  yet  the  principal  difference  seems  to  be  in  the  manner 
of  their  combination ;  but  as  that  is  a  puzzle  which  I  could  not  explain  or  you  understand 
very  clearly,  we  will  leave  it  alone.  Steel  has  qualities  peculiarly  its  own,  and  is  made 
from  bar-iron  by  the  very  peculiar  process  of  "cementation,"  which  was  first  heard  of  in 
England  about  the  middle  of  the  last  century,  and  which  soon  effected  a  total  revolution 
in,  or  rather  re-created,  the  cutlery  trade,  for  which  Sheffield  has  ever  been  famous. 


t-±  THE    WONDERLAND    OF    WORK. 

The  bars  intended  for  first-class  cutlery  steel  should  be  of  the  best  brand  of  Danish 
iron,  or  if  for  ordinary  purposes  it  may  be  mixed  with  some  best  English  wrought-iron. 
The  prepared  bars  are  taken  to  an  odd-looking  conical  building  called  a  "converting 
furnace/'  in  which  there  is  either  one  or  two  deep  openings  or  receptacles,  with  fire- 
bricks so  placed  that  when  a  fire  is  lighted  the  flames  may  be  able  to  beat  all  about  the 
outer  surfaces  so  as  to  keep  their  contents  at  the  high  and  regular  heat  upon  which  the 
success  of  the  baking  depends.  At  the  bottom  of  each  of  these  trough-like  ovens  is  first 
scattered  a  layer  or  bed  of  powdered  charcoal,  on  which  is  placed  a  row  of  the  short 
iron  bars  which  are  to  be  transformed  into  steel.  On  and  about  these  another  layer  of 
charcoal  is  scattered ;  then  more  bars  of  iron  placed ;  then  more  charcoal,  until  the  trough 
is  full.  The  surface  of  the  whole  is  next  plastered  up  with  a  kind  of  cement,  intended 
to  prevent  the  charcoal  from  burning  away.  A  fire  is  now  lighted  which  is  to  keep  the 
whole  in  a  glowing,  red-hot  state  for  some  days,  during  which  time  the  baking  is 
carefully  superintended  by  an  experienced  worker,  who  every  now  and  then  draws  out  a 
"  test  bar/'  from  the  appearance  of  which  he  can  judge  of  the  exact  progress  of  the 
rest.  This  he  has  to  watch  very  closely,  as  steel  for  different  purposes  requires  a  different 
amount  of  conversion.  For  instance,  that  which  is  intended  for  knife-blades  and  cutlery 
does  not  need  to  be  (l  treated  "  quite  as  much  as  that  used  for  fine  files.  But  if  the  steel 
is  intended  for  objects  to  be  afterwards  cast  in  a  fluid  state,  it  must  now  be  heated  to 
a  very  high  degree  indeed.  Altogether  this  part  of  the  work  necessitates  great  care  and 
judgment. 

At  the  required  point  the  fierce  fires  are  stopped,  and  the  ovens  allowed  to  cool 
slowly.  When  they  are  opened  and  the  bars  taken  out,  they  will  be  found  to  be  all 
over  blisters,  like  wood  which  has  been  lately  painted  and  then  acted  upon  by  the 
sun.  These  bars  have  absorbed  a  small  quantity  of.  carbon,  and  are  no  longer  iron,  but 
"  blister-steel ; "  and  as  at  its  first  stage  blister-steel  is  not  considered  fit  for  anything 
but  the  very  coarsest  work,  it  has  generally  to  go  through  other  preparations,  known 
as  shearing,  double  shearing,  or  casting,  which  we  will  try  to  describe.  This  last  process 
has  only  been  in  use  for  a  comparatively  short  time,  and  is  the  one  to  which  we  owe 
the  beauty  of  modern  steel,  the  best  kind  of  which,  such  as  is  used  for  surgical  instru- 
ments and  engineers'  tools,  costs  as  much  as  £50  a  ton. 

Pieces  of  "blister-steel"  are  put  into  moderately-sized  crucibles,  or  melting-pots, 
which  must  be  composed  of  very  hard  and  indestructible  materials,  as  they  will  have  to 
bear  most  intense  heat  when  they  are  placed  in  a  kind  of  invisible  chamber  or  furnace 
which  is  sunk  in  the  floor  of  the  stone-paved  casting-house,  and  kept  closely  covered  in 
with  an  iron  lid,  which  is  lifted  off  from  time  to  time  that  the  worker  may  take  a  peep 
at  its  contents  or  add  more  fuel  when  required.  This  man  must  be  very  skilled  and 
experienced  at  the  work,  for  he  will  have  to  judge  by  appearances,  unaided  by  any  test, 
as  to  which  is  exactly  the  right  moment  for  adding  the  mixture  of  carbon  and  man- 
ganese required  to  refine  the  steel,  and  also  be  ready  to  give  the  signal  for  removing 
the  pot  and  its  seething  contents  as  soon  as  certain  signs  appear  to  his  practised  eye,  the 
neglect  of  which  would  spoil  the  whole  batch. 

While  the  stew  is  getting  ready,  the  worker  places  his  cast-iron  moulds  ready  for  ita 


WHAT    IS    MANGANESE? 


75 


reception.  These  are  not  unlike  long  bullet-moulds,  being  composed  of  two  halves, 
which  are  bound  closely  together,  fit  exactly,  and  their  insides  are  coated  with  some  sort 
of  composition.  Now  they  are  placed — one  end  in  a  kind  of  hole  in  the  floor,  the  upper 
end  wide  open  to  receive  the  contents  of  the  pots.  When  the  signal  is  given,  the  lid  is 
lifted  off  the  furnace,  the  fuel  pushed  back  from  about  the  white-red  pot  below,  which 
a  masked  man  then  seizes  upon  with  a  pair  of  pincers  and  drags  out  of  its  fiery 
resting-place.  Poor  fellow  !  it  is  fearfully  trying  work,  for  he  has  to  bend  down  and  face 
the  fearful  heat  burning  and  glaring  beneath  him.  Then  the  lid  has  to  be*  lifted  off 
the  crucible,  and  the  liquid  steel,  about  which  float  little  greenish  sparks,  is  "  teemed " 
or  poured  straight  down  into  the  mould — an  operation  which  requires  the  greatest  care 
and  the  nerve  which  long  practice  at  such  a  task  alone  can  give.  The  pot  is  now  to  be 
again  filled  with  bits  of  steel  and  returned  to  the  furnace.  When  the  casting  is  cool 
enough  to  bear  removal,  the  two  halves  of  the  mould 
are  unfastened  and  its  contents  turned  out  and 
prepared  for  the  steam-hammer. 

Manganese  is  a  kind  of  metal  which  we  meet 
with  here,  as  we  shall  do  in  many  other  depart- 
ments of  our  Wonderland,  and  is  worth  noting,  for 
it  is  one  of  those  things  which,  though  known  well 
enough  by  name,  is  otherwise  generally  ignored. 
Yet  as  much  as  50,000  tons  of  it  have  been 
employed  in  Great  Britain  in  one  year;  and  no 
wonder,  for  we  find  its  different  oxides  used  in 
potteries,  where,  I  believe,  it  is  never  employed  in 
quite  a  pure  state.  It  gives  the  dense  black  colour 
to  certain  kinds  of  opaque  china  and  fcles  ;  in  glass-works  it  helps  to  clear  flint-glass  of 
impurities,  or  to  tint  it  of  a  beautiful  purple.  It  is  employed  in  paper-making,  and  in 
the  bleaching  and  dyeing  of  cotton,  and  to  form  bleaching-powder.  It  is  of  service  in 
disinfectants,  giving  the  peculiar  pinky  colour  found  in  some  of  them  (Condy's  fluid,  for 
instance)  ;  and,  as  we  have  seen,  it  is  of  value  in  the  conversion  of  iron  into  steel  by  the 
Bessemer  process.  It  is  thought  that  its  peculiar  property  of  improving  iron  was  known 
long  since,  and  that  the  celebrated  "  Toledo  blades "  owed  their  pliability  and  excellence 
to  the  presence  of  manganese.  Surely,  knowing  all  this,  it  is  worth  inquiring  what 
such  a  useful  thing  is  and  where  it  is  to  be  found. 

Large  supplies  of  this  hard  though  brittle  metal  are  obtained  from  France  and  the 
mountains  of  Spain  and  Portugal,  where  it  lies  in  scattered  "  pockets "  near  the  surface 
of  the  ground.  Here  the  miners  find  it  in  detached  lumps  and  masses,  which  they  collect, 
and  pack  and  pile  in  panniers  swung  on  their  mules.  These  animals  are  then  led  down 
to  the  nearest  streams,  where  their  load  is  closely  examined,  sorted,  and  washed;  the 
best  pieces  are  again  re-packed  in  the  baskets,  and  a  whole  train  of  the  plodding,  sure- 
footed animals  are  led  off,  sometimes  many  a  mile  and  over  very  rough  roads,  which  no 
cart  could  cross,  to  the  nearest  seaport  town  or  railway-station,  where  their  pack  is  disposed 
of  at  a  very  low  rate.  A  quantity  was  also  found  in  different  parts  of  Great  Britain. 


CASTING    STEEL    INGOTS. 


76  THE    WONDERLAND    OF    WOKK. 

But  to  return  to  our  old  subject,  and  after  having  shown  you  so  much  concerning  our 
English  Wonderland    of    iron    and    steel,    let   us  take  a  flight  over  the    sea   and    away    to 
Essen,  a  quiet  part  of  Rhenish  Prussia,  where  we  shall  find  a  very  crowded  hive,  swarming 
with    industrious    and    busy   metal-workers     of    the    most    ingenious    kind.       Here    is    an 
immense    establishment    where     not   only    almost    all    the    German    ordnance   guns,  their 
carriages,  and  projectiles    are    made,  but    also    much  that  is  required    for    more   peaceful 
needs    and   interests — shafts,  boiler    and    ships'   plates,   axles,    tyres,    wheels,    springs,    and 
engines.     For  here  we   are   at   Herr  Krupp's  famous  works,  where  there  are  usually  more 
than    1,000    furnaces    blazing,   not    to    mention    hundreds    of    smiths'  forges    and   steam- 
boilers,  to  keep  all  of   which  going  we  are  told  it  takes  more  than   600,000  tons  of  coal 
and   coke   per  annum.      One   hundred   and   eighty  acres   of   work-buildings  are   roofed   in, 
and  as  so  large   a  place  must  be  well  lighted,  the  necessary  gas   has  to   be   made   on  the 
premises,   and    sheds    its    glow    from     20,000    burners,   which,   however,    I   am   informed, 
are    now    being    displaced    by    the    electric    light.      Locomotives    are     flying     about    the 
works   in   all   directions;    and   here   are   telegraph   stations,   from   which   we   may   send   or 
receive  messages  from  almost  all  parts  of  the  world;  here  is  a  chemical  laboratory  as  well 
as  a  photographic  and   printing  department — all  very  useful  in  such  monster  works,  where 
some  9,000  men  are  employed,  besides   a   great  number  of   extra   ones   busy  at  the   mines 
beyond.     In  fact,  the  whole  place  represents  an  industrial  town,   where  the  workers'  wants 
are  well  attended  to  by  one  great  master  spirit,  for  near  by  the  ceaseless  din  and  rattle  of 
the  forges  are  to  be  seen  sundry  model  villages — "  Krupp  colonies  " — places  where  the  many 
workmen  and  their  families  are  comfortably  and  cheaply  lodged,  where  they  can  send  their 
children  to  schools  in  every  way  suitable  for  them,  and  where  there  are  several  provision 
stores,  flour-mills,  bakers,  and  other  establishments  at  which  things  may  be  bought  at  cost 
price.      Altogether  it  is  a  most   interesting   place  to  visit,  but  it  would  take  us  so  long 
to  find  out  for  ourselves  all  that  is  done  there  that  we  cannot  do  better  than  read  what 
was  lately  written   concerning  it  by   one   who   had   attended   a  trial   of  the   great   Krupp 
ordnance  guns  at  Meppen,  in  Westphalia,  and  afterwards  examined,  with  admiring  curiosity, 
the  details  of  this  city  of  iron  : — 

"  The  Essen  Factory  offers  a  marvellous  spectacle,  both  to  the  initiated  and  to  those 
who  have  little  knowledge  of  such  matters.  One  of  the  more  striking  parts  of  the  exhibition 
was  that  which  showed  the  Bessemer  process  in  full  operation.  Rivulets  of  fire  and  roaring 
.jets  of  flame,  mingling  with  myriads  of  star-formed  sparks,  constituted  a  display  which 
might  have  suggested  actual  peril  to  the  beholder,  had  it  not  been  for  the  evidence  of 
perfect  control  which  was  being  exercised  over  these  fiery  forces.  Bessemer  steel,  we  may 
remark,  has  nothing  to  do  with  Krupp  guns,  but  it  is  largely  employed  for  various  pur- 
poses, especially  the  manufacture  of  steel  rails.  In  the  Krupp  works  the  metal  is  never 
allowed  to  become  cool,  from  the  time  the  ore  is  first  melted  until  the  rail  is  produced. 

"The  forging  of  a  solid  cylinder  of  steel  under  the  great  50-ton  steam-hammer  was 
one  of  the  marvels  of  the  day.  This  mass  of  metal  was  intended  to  form  the  tube  or 
interior  of  a  35  £ -centimetre  gun,  equal  to  a  bore  of  14  inches.  The  weight  of  the  steel 
mass  was  about  30  tons,  and  its  length  about  30  feet.  It  was  hauled  out  of  the  furnace  in 
a  state  of  incandescence,  and  was  pounded  under  the  giant  hammer — the  largest  in  the 


78  THE    WONDERLAND    OF    WORK 

world.  This,  moreover,  was  set  up  several  years  ago,  and  has  been  at  work,  more  or  less, 
day  and  night  ever  since,  never  having  required  any  repairs,  except  of  a  trifling  character. 
The  ingot  now  subject  to  its  power  was  beautifully  controlled  by  means  of  chains  connected 
with  a  steam-engine,  so  that  it  was  turned  round  under  the  hammer  without  any  visible 
intervention  of  the  workmen.  This  hammer,  we  may  observe,  is  able  to  give  a  stroke  due 
to  a  fall  of  12  feet,  and  the  force  of  the  blow  is  considered  equal  to  1,000  tons/' 

Passing  on  to  another  building,  the  visitor  entered  a  "  finishing-shop/'  where  the  final 
touches  are  given  to  the  curiously-shaped  masses  of  metal.  Here  were  lathes,  and  slotting  and 
planing  machines,  under  whose  powerful  influence  no  metal  could  be  obdurate.  Iron  and 
steel  were  cut  almost  as  if  they  were  wood,  and  one  thing  our  observer  noticed  was  the 
extreme  clearness  of  the  steel,  resembling,  in  some  cases,  polished  silver.  "A  single  speck 
in  a  block  of  steel  is  held  fatal  at  Essen,  and  such  a  product  is  at  once  rejected."  In  the 
next  building  was  the  largest  "  face-plate  "  in  the  world.  This  was  an  upright  disk  of  cast- 
iron,  30  feet  in  diameter,  and  cast  in  two  pieces.  The  plate  was  slowly  revolving  on  its 
centre,  while  a  species  of  plane  was  cutting  its  way  into  a  curved  rail,  called  a  "  racer/'  used 
in  the  traversing  of  guns,  this  curved  rail  being  fastened  on  the  flat  surface  of  the  colossal 
iplate.  Near  at  hand  there  were  powerful  machines  at  work  boring  the  tubes  for  field-guns. 
•One  large  building  contained  guns  that  were  finished,  one  being  "  packed  up "  ready  for 
•departure.  Great  12-inch  guns  were  lying  about  as  if  they  were  ordinary  commodities, 
and  on  emerging  into  the  open  air  a  field-gun  was  seen  travelling  aloft  on  a  wire-rope 
railway.  By  means  of  this  aerial  line,  light  guns  are  transferred  from  one  building  to 
another  on  the  level  of  the  upper  floors  with  extraordinary  facility.  An  example  of  another 
kind  was  not  far  off.  In  the  largest  "  finishing-shop "  in  the  world — a  lofty  structure, 
literally  big  enough  to  build  an  ironclad  in — was  a  50-ton  travelling-crane,  stretching  across 
the  whole  breadth  of  the  building,  and  at  a  vast  height  from  the  floor.  Under  the  same 
roof  was  another  contrivance  of  a  similar  kind,  designed  to  lift  20  tons.  There  was 
also  a  gigantic  hollow  lathe,  made  by  an  English  firm  at  Leeds.  There,  too,  was  a  wooden 
model  on  the  full  scale,  of  a  46-centimetre  gun,  to  weigh  120  tons.  Whether  such  a  gun 
will  ever  be  made  I  cannot  say,  but  Herr  Krupp  is  prepared  to  make  it,  and  it  is  designed 
as  a  breechloader.  Here  let  me  'remark  that  the  Italian  Government  has  lately  had  a 
100-ton  cannon  made  of  cast-iron,  at  a  cost  of  £9,000.  Its  interior  is  lined  with  steel  rings, 
450  Ibs.  of  powder  being  required  for  each  charge. 

The  visitor  next  proceeded  to  witness  the  casting  of  a  20-ton  steel  ingot.  This  is  not 
considered  a  heavy  casting  at  Essen ;  but  the  scene,  we  are  told,  was  one  to  be  remembered. 
Crowds  of  men  were  engaged  in  hauling  up  crucibles  of  molten  steel  from  sunken  furnaces,  and 
emptying  the  contents  into  channels  communicating  with  the  casting-pit.  The  whole  place 
seemed  pervaded  by  subterranean  fire ;  but  the  work  was  done  quietly  and  efficiently,  eleven 
minutes  sufficing  for  the  entire  operation.  When  a  really  big  casting  has  to  be  made,  a 
thousand  men  or  more  are  employed  in  the  process,  which  may  well  be  dubbed  "  terrific." 

If  we  wish  to  compare  our  own  Royal  Ordnance  Works  with  those  famous  ones  at 
Essen,  we  had  better  hear  something  concerning  big  guns,  and  then  pay  a  visit  to  Woolwich 
Arsenal,  where  another  of  the  largest  steam-hammers  is  to  be  seen  at  work. 

Perhaps  some  of  you  may  not  be  aware  that  most  of  the  cannon  of  Great  Britain  are 


GUN-MAKING    AT    WOOLWICH.  79 

made  differently  to  those  of  Prussia,  Russia,  Austria,  and  France,  who  all  use  breechloaders — 
that  is,  the  necessary  projectiles  are  introduced  in  the  rear,  while,  as  regards  most  of  our 
guns,  we  still  ram  them  in  at  the  muzzle.  Then,  too,  unlike  the  Krupp  cannon,  which 
is  of  cast-steel,  or  the  Austrian  steel-bronze  gun,  and  contrary  to  the  French  iron  gun, 
surrounded  with  steel  hoops,  the  Woolwich  gun  is  fashioned  of  steel  and  encircled  by 
iron  hoops.  They  are  marvels  of  strength — too  strong  and  too  large,  some  say,  to  be  easily 
loaded,  and  the  whole  system  is  now  being  examined  by  scientific  men.  But  taking  them 
as  I  write,  if  we  examine  one  of  these  "  ministers  of  war/'  we  shall  see  that  its  body  is  of 
steel,  strengthened  by  cylinders  of  iron.  Once  it  was  a  solid  mass  of  steel — of  the  length 
of  the  required  gun — costing  perhaps  over  £40 Oj  because,  having  to  stand  the  sudden 
strain  of  powder  and  shot,  it  had  to  be  of  the  very  best  casting  and  quality,  and  its  tight 
iron  jackets  of  the  toughest  and  firmest,  especially  about  the  vent,  or  "  touch-hole/'  otherwise 
fearful  would  be  the  damage  to  follow  when  the  firing  took  place. 

As  we  are  getting  to  the  end  of  our  time,  we  will  suppose  the  interior  of  the  solid 
steel  tube  to  have  been  already  cleared  out  by  a  boring-machine,  and  that  we  are  witness- 
ing the  "  coiling  process "  by  which  those  bars  of  iron  are  to  be  strengthened  and  prepared 
for  the  place  they  are  to  occupy  about  the  mighty  tube  they  are  to  protect  from  strain. 
To  effect  this,  the  huge  bars  are  placed  in  a  long  furnace,  built  for  this  purpose,  and  are 
well  turned  and  worked  about  until  the  metal  is  considered  to  have  become  sufficiently  solid 
and  fibrous.  Then  one  red-hot  end  is  seized  upon  by  a  revolving  cylinder,  which  draws  it 
out,  and  coils  .it  round  and  round  in  a  huge  spiral  ring,  weighing  many  tons,  after  which 
it  is  left  to  cool,  when  it  is  ready  to  be  forged  or  welded  into  a  hollow  ring  or  hoop, 
intended  to  be  slipped  over  the  steel  body  of  the  cannon  after  the  manner  of  a  bracelet. 

But  that  is  a  tremendous  job,  which  only  a  most  tremendous  "tool" — if  we  may  so 
speak  of  the  38-ton  hammer  here  employed — can  effect.  When  the  spiral  of  cold  iron, 
once  more  heated  until  it  is  white-hot,  which  perhaps  it  takes  two  days  to  effect,  is 
ready,  it  is  given  over  to  be  welded  by  this  monster  hammer,  every  fall  of  which, 
aided  by  steam  of  course,  represents  a  weight  of  almost  1,000  tons.  But  before  the 
coil,  which  may  weigh  from  20  to  40  tons,  can  be  thus  hammered  into  toughness, 
it  must  be  somehow  dragged  from  the  fiery  recesses  of  the  furnace  which  contains 
it.  In  order  to  effect  this,  a  pair  of  tongs — such  a  pair  of  tongs — are  needed,  and  ex- 
perienced handy  workers  to  manage  them.  A  dazzling,  wonderful  sight  is  a  "heat"  or 
opening  of  this  furnace  at  the  Woolwich  Arsenal,  though  beforehand  it  appears  to  be  a 
huge  black  blank,  for  every  crack  and  crevice  has  been  carefully  "luted"  or  stopped  with 
wet  fireclay,  and  no  one  not  forewarned  could  possibly  imagine  the  weird  sight  to  come. 
A  sort  of  general  nutter  takes  place ;  the  broad  anvil  is  brushed ;  the  huge  hammer  gives 
a  sort  of  convulsive  lift  or  two,  as  though  to  try  its  strength ;  the  dozen  half -naked  men 
stand  ready,  while  the  clay  is  quickly  picked  out;  then  comes  the  slow  lifting  of  a  dark 
door,  weighing  8  tons,  and  the  burst  of  such  a  mighty  glare  of  light  and  heat  that  it 
is  difficult  to  tell  what  follows,  and  we  turn  away  half -blinded,  but  with  the  conviction 
that  surely  there  can  be  nothing  but  flame  within  that  fiery  oven. 

Those  eager  workers  know  better,  and  fling  in  wet  sand,  which,  darkening  as  it  falls, 
•hows  them  the  metal  they  are  in  search  of.  Once  having  ascertained  its  position,  the  heavy 


80 


THE    WONDERLAND    OF    WOEK. 


tongs  are  swung,  and  soon  clinch  fast  and  drag  it  forth,  dripping  with  fiery  and  streaming 
metal.  In  a  very  short  time  it  is  placed  under  the  hammer,  which  beats  and  batters  the 
huge  morsel  changing  to  all  sorts  of  colours  under  its  heavy  taps,  which  only  stop  for  a 
time,  to  re-commence  when  a  coil  or  bolt  of  cold  iron  has  been  slipped  into  the  cylinder, 
and  driven  right  through  its  centre,  leaving  it  hollowed,  and  of  the  shape  required.  When 
the  coils  (four  of  which  are  usually  required  for  one  gun)  are  so  far  ready,  they  are 
placed  in  large  steam-lathes,  and  pared  and  made  smooth,  their  inner  sides  being  carefully 
gauged  that  they  may  fit  the  places  they  are  to  occupy. 

But  now  for  the  last  process.  Of  course  you  know  that  all  our  modern  guns  are 
"rifled" — that  is,  have  furrows  running  along  the  interior  of  the  steel  tube.  This  rifling 
is  accomplished  when  the  cannon  is  otherwise  finished,  by  cutting  in  its  interior  a 


THE    EIGHTY-TON   GUN. 


series  of  grooves,  into  which  the  studded  surface  of  the  shot  (whicrx  now  much  more 
resemble  sugar-loaves  than  cannon-balls)  will  fit,  flying  out  with  far  greater  accuracy  than 
when  discharged  from  the  old  smooth-bores;  for  this  spiral  rifling  gives  to  the  ball  a 
rotation  which  is  rapid  in  proportion  to  the  force  of  the  explosive  and  the  sharpness  of 
the  twist  in  the  spiral,  the  revolution  of  the  ball  on  its  own  axis  keeping  that  axis, 
gravity  excepted,  in  the  line  in  which  it  leaves  the  piece,  so  securing  that  thorough 
correctness  of  aim  which  is  so  indispensable  for  attack  or  defence  either  on  sea  or  land. 

And  now  let  us  turn  to  something  that  saves  instead  of  destroying  life,  and  give 
honourable  mention  to  the  sturdy  and  patient  anchor-smiths,  the  regular  "  bing,  bang,  bing  !  '* 
of  whose  hammers  is  to  be  heard  afar  off  as  they  fall  on  a  red-hot  mass  of  glowing  metal, 
soon  to  be  transformed  into  a  mighty 

"  Anchor  whose  giant  hand 
Will  reach  down  and  grapple  with  the  land. 
And  immovable  and  fast 
Hold  the  great  ship  against  the  bellowing  blast." 


HOW  ANCHORS  ABE  FORGED. 


81 


A  perilous  business  truly,  and  one  upon  which  many  a  precious  life  may  depend,  so  we  need 
scarcely  be  told  that  only  the  very  best  scrap  iron  is  used  for  the  purpose  of  forming  the 
"  giant  hand/'  as  also  for  the  many  chains  and  cables  that  hang-  about  and  restrain  every 
vessel.  Very  much  of  this  iron  comes  from  South  Staffordshire,  some  70,000  tons  being 
annually  used  in  the  Black  Country  for  such  objects  alone.  The  scrap  iron  having  been 
beaten  and  banged  into  big  solid  slabs,  these  are  placed  in  numbers  under  a  heavy  drop- 
hammer,  and  then  forged  and  finished  by  hand — no  slight  work  when  the  anchor  is  to  be 
a  large  one,  for  they  vary  in  size  from  the  fisher-boat's  little  grapnel  to  that  required  by 
an  ordinary  sailing-vessel,  or  such  a  huge  one  as  that  made  specially  for  the  Great  Eastern, 
which  weighed  8  tons.  At  best  it  is  a  hard  and  trying  task,  as  the  smith  must  rush 
at  the  great  glaring  mass  of  red-hot  metal,  and  strike  his  blows  swiftly  and  surely,  before  it 
has  time  to  cool ;  but  the  heat  is  so  intense,  and  the  big  sledge-hammer  so  heavy,  that  the 
poor  fellow  can  but  let  it  fall  once,  and  then  hastily  retreat  amid  a  shower  of  sparks  and 
make  room  for  his  fellows,  who  step  forward  in  turn,  their  successive  blows  causing  that 
regular  and  almost  musical  peal  which  at  first  so  pleased  our  ears,  but  at  last  threatens  to 
deafen  us. 

Not  only  are  anchors  made  of  the  best  tensile  iron,  but,  for  "  the  better  security  of 
lives  and  property  afloat  in  sea-going  ships/'  they  must  be  thoroughly  tested  by  hydraulic 
power  used  by  properly-appointed  persons,  who,  after  carefully  examining  the  different 
parts,  will  give  an  official  stamp  declaring  it  as  safe  and  sure  a  piece  of  workmanship  as 
strong  arms  can  fashion. 


AN    IRON    KING    ABOUT   TO    SAIL    OUT    OF    THE    THAMES. 

"  A  vessel  as  goodly  and  strong  and  staunch 
As  ever  weathered  a  wintry  sea." 


THE    TOY-SHOP    OF    THE    WORLD/' 

E  find  that  it  was  written  as  long  ago  as  1538  that  "in 
Bermigham  were  many  smiths  and  cuttlers,  that  make  knives 
and  all  manner  of  cuttynge  tooles,  and  many  loriners  that 
make  bittes,  and  a  great  many  naylors.  They  have  their  iron 
and  sea-cole  out  of  Staffordshire/'  And  later  on  we  read 
also  how  one  manufacturer  of  "cuttynge  tooles"  readily 
supplied  the  forces  of  the  Earl  of  Essex  with  15,000  swords, 
while  the  Royalist  party  were  not  only  refused  blades,  for 
which  they  were  willing  to  pay,  but  those  who  would  have 
supplied  them  with  the  much-needed  weapons  were  ill-treated 
and  imprisoned  by  their  fellow-citizens. 

In  these  our  days,  "  Bermigham/'  though  it  still  makes 
weapons,  is  now  no  longer  specially  a  town  of  cutlers  and 
smiths;  that  distinction  belongs  more  properly  to  busy, 
grimy  Sheffield  and  that  neighbourhood.  Its  workers  excel  now  more  particularly  in  the 
production  of  endless  varieties  of  fancy  metal  articles,  ornamental  or  useful.  Burke 
christened  it  "  the  toy-shop  of  the  world."  Lead,  tin,  brass,  or  even  silver  and  gold,  are 
aptly  worked  up  by  their  dexterous  fingers  and  wonderful  tools  and  appliances  into  every 
possible  thing  which  metal  can  form,  from  a  dozen  shining  buttons  for  your  brother's 
jacket  to  a  thousand  English  axes  ready  for  exportation,  from  sleeve-links  to  chimney- 
clock  cases.  Stamp  and  die  are  for  ever  at  work.  Labour,  skill,  and  time — the  men  of 
Birmingham  will  give  all  to  accomplish  any  task  they  have  in  hand,  and  more  honour  to- 
them  for  it. 

If  we  peep  in  and  about  the  smoky  hive  of  workers  we  shall  see  its  bees  busy  at  all 
kinds  of  workj  producing  a  thousand  and  one  things  which,  though  we  find  it  difficult  to 


ABOUT    A    PIN.  83 

remember,  we  should  sadly  miss  if  the  supply  ran  short.  Here  are  workmen's  tools,  soldiers' 
weapons,  ladies'  implements,  such  as  thimbles,  pins,  needles,  buttons,  scissors,  penknives, 
or  studs,  screws,  saddlery,  shining  electro  forks,  spoons,  teapots,  cruets,  and  trays, 
thousands  of  boxes  of  steel  pens  and  their  fancy  holders,  elaborately  plated  pencil-cases, 
papier-mache  boxes  and  oddments  of  many  kinds.  As  to  cheap  "  Brummagem "  jewellery, 
watches,  chains,  rings,  and  brooches,  their  name  is  legion.  I  cannot  attempt  to  number  the 
varieties  it  supplies  for  home  and  foreign  markets,  not  to  mention  the  handsomely  chased 
cups  our  Volunteers  are  so  proud  of  winning,  or,  less  pleasant  to  note,  the  cutlasses,  hatchets, 
pistols,  bayonets,  swords,  or  even  ugly  tomahawks,  spear-heads,  spiteful-looking  daggers, 
useful  woodmen's  hatchets,  and  knives  of  the  most  treacherous  order,  which  may  be  only 
intended  to  cut  a  harmless  log,  or  a  way  through  the  jungle,  or  defend  its  wearer  from  wild 
beasts,  but  that  would  very  readily  serve  for  a  less  peaceful  purpose,  when  once  in  the 
hands  of  some  far-away  savage  who  has  bartered  all  his  forest  wealth  to  possess  it. 

We  are  among  so  many  workers  now  that  we  scarcely  know  where  to  stop.  There  is 
not  a  pin  to  choose  between  them,  their  tasks  are  all  so  interesting.  But,  as  we  have 
mentioned  it,  let  us  stay  at  a  pin.  Yet  what  can  we  say  about  it?  I  had  it  so  firmly 
impressed  upon  me  when  I  was  a  child  that  it  took  twenty  people  to  make  one  pin  that, 
though  I  see  it  at  work,  I  can  hardly  yet  believe  it  possible  that  this  noisy,  rattling, 
snapping  little  machine  can  by  any  natural  means  turn  out  between  200  and  300  pins  per 
minute,  unrolling  and  snapping  up,  as  fast  as  eyes  can  follow,  yards  upon  yards  of  fine 
bright  brass  wire,  great  coils  of  which  are  hanging  about  us  in  every  direction — hard 
and  dry  food  for  the  little  devouring  metal  monster  before  us,  that  gobbles  it  up  quicker 
than  seems  natural  to  unaccustomed  eyes. 

Before  fairly  examining  into  the  "how  and  why"  of  this  wonderful  little  automatic 
machine,  we  are  told  that  it  was  originally  an  American  invention,  but  that  very  many 
clever  persons  have  spent  years  in  perfecting  it  into  what  it  is.  Just  note — a  pin-making 
machine  !  Really,  we  cannot  help  remarking  that  surely  they  might  have  employed  them- 
selves in  a  more  profitable  task,  for,  after  all,  what  does  'it  do  ?  Makes  a  pin !  But  what 
is  the  value  of  a  pin  ?  If  any  lady  wishes  to  express  the  worthlessness  of  an  object,  does  she 
not  say,  "  Oh,  it  is  not  worth  a  pin/'  or  "  I  would  not  give  a  pin  for  it"  ?  and  yet  here  is 
quite  a  complicated  machine  invented  for  the  sole  purpose  of  making  such  things,  and  we 
are  invited  to  admire  and  wonder  at  it  all  the  more,  as  through  its  means  England  is  the 
richer  by  a  national  manufacture  of  greater  importance  than  we  can  possible  realise  while 
we  consider  only  a  pin  as  a  pin.  And  here  we  have  some  wonderful  commercial  statistics 
quoted,  which  prove  that  for  the  benefit  of  self  and  neighbours — for  English  pins  have  a 
good  reputation  abroad — Great  Britain  produces  about  fifty  million  pins  daily,  thirty-seven 
millions  of  which  are  manufactured  in  Birmingham.  Altogether,  the  trade  in  these  trifles 
we  scarcely  thought  worth  mention  is  estimated  at  about  £220,000 — think  of  that ! 

When  metal  pins  first  came  into  use  among  the  English  ladies,  which  was  somewhere 
about  the  commencement  of  the  sixteenth  century,  being  brought  to  OUT  country  by  foreign 
traders  only,  they  were  expensive,  and  considered  to  form  a  very  agreeable  and  acceptable 
new  year's  gift;  but  as  they  were  not  always  obtainable,  a  sum  of  money  wherewith  to 
purchase  them  was  sometimes  more  conveniently  presented,  even  to  rich  dames,  as  "pin- 


84  THE    WONDERLAND    OF    WOEK. 

money;"  and  a  wife's  allowance  of  pin-money  was  thereafter  often  fixed  and  agreed  upon 
in  the  making  out  of  marriage  settlements.  This  is  alluded  to  in  many  old  household 
documents.  There  seem  to  have  been  so  many  complaints  concerning  these  first  pins  (I 
suppose  the  ladies  did  not  get  enough  for  their  money),  that  in  1543  Parliament  interfered, 
and  passed  an  "Acte  for  the  true  making  of  pynnes,"  wherein  it  was  decreed  that  they 
were  not  to  be  sold  for  more  than  six  shillings  and  eightpence  (representing  about  ten  times 
the  sum  it  does  now)  per  thousand.  This  change  from  the  old-fashioned  clumsy  bone  and 
wooden  skewers  must  certainly  have  been  such  a  very  agreeable  one,  that  we  can  scarcely 
wonder  at  the  ladies  being  at  first  somewhat  extravagant  in  their  purchases  of  them. 
During  the  early  part  of  the  reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth  it  is  said  that  not  less  than 
£60,000  were  annually  spent  with  the  foreign  merchants,  who,  as  we  know,  imported  these 
useful  little  accessories  to  the  toilet.  But  before  the  end  of  her  Majesty's  reign,  and  during 
that  of  her  successor,  plenty  of  English  "pynners"  were  found,  whose  fine  work  in  metal 

"pynnes"  excelled  that  of  any  of  the  foreign 
artificers,  who  hitherto  appear  to  have  had  the 
flourishing  trade  all  to  themselves. 

Brass  and  iron  wire  pins  are  said  to  have 
been  originally  a  French  or  Italian  invention, 
though  others  think  that  they  travelled  over  the 
seas  from  thrifty  Holland,  along  with  the  useful 
and  homely  little  thimble.  However  that  may 
be,  English  "pynners"  were  regularly  at  work 
by  154-2,  as  it  is  on  record  that  they  were  for- 

PIN- MAKING  MACHINE.  ,  .  ,  ,  ,          .      ,        »    -p,      ,.  ,,    „  . 

bidden  by  Act  or  Jrarhament  to  sell     any  sort  or 

pynne  except  such  as  shall  be  double-headed  and  have  the  pynne  soldered  faste  to  the  shanke 
of  the  pynne/*  which  looks  very  much  as  though  exception  had  been  made  to  the  solidity 
of  their  wares.  Yet  the  company  must  have  prospered,  and  become  wealthy,  for  when 
Charles  I.  was  king  its  members  agreed  to  pay  him  £500  a  year  for  the  advantage  of 
certain  privileges,  which  were  afterwards  confirmed  by  Charles  II.,  who  also  bound  himself  to 
raise  £20,000  for  their  benefit,  to  provide  a  stock  of  wire,  and  to  take  all  the  pins  they 
made  at  prices  to  be  fixed  by  the  Lord  Treasurer,  the  pin-makers  undertaking,  in  return, 
to  deliver  70,000  Ibs.  weight,  not  of  pins,  as  one  might  expect,  but  of  ordnance  half- 
yearly  to  the  Master  of  the  Ordnance. 

But  to  our  own  times  and  our  own  pin-makers.  First  let  me  remark  that  there  are 
"pins  and  pins/'  from  the  doll  or  baby  pin,  so  small  and  light  that  it  can  scarcely  be 
picked  out  of  the  roll  of  fine  white  satin  ribbon  which  it  is  often  used  to  fasten,  to  the 
sturdy  "  corker "  or  "  blanket "  pin  as  long  as  your  finger.  There  are  the  useful  "  short 
whites"  and  "mixed/'  for  ordinary  use  and  dressmaking  purposes;  there  are  long,  fine 
wire  pins,  used  by  naturalists  for  transfixing  butterflies  and  insects;  and  doubled-up  safety- 
pins,  so  useful  in  the  nursery,  and  which,  I  have  heard,  were  first  made  in  imitation  of  the 
sharp  straight  thorns  which  wandering  gipsies  ingeniously  doubled  and  bent  and  twisted 
to  hold  their  tattered  shawls  or  other  garments  together.  There  are  unreliable  brass  pins, 
which  are  sold  at  about  fourteen  pence  a  pound;  and  slim  gilt  pins,  for  natural  history 


PIN-MAKING    MACHINES. 


85 


collecting,  which  cost  seven  or  eight  shillings  an  ounce;  and  there  are  "long  shawls/*  and 
numberless  hair-pins,  and  mourning  and  other  pins,  which  we  may  not  remember  just  now, 
but  the  uses  of  which  are  worth  considering,  when  we  undervalue  pins  in  such  a  wholesale 
manner.  Quantities  of  pins  are  also  made  in  France,  Germany,  Austria,  and  especially 
in  America,  where  it  is  said  that  from  400  to  500  tons  weight  of  these  humble  but 
useful  articles  are  annually  turned  out,  most  of  them  to  vanish  nobody  knows  where. 
And  we  scarcely  need  be  told  that  to  make  these  numerous  pins  a  very  large  quantity  of 
metal  is  necessary.  In  England  alone  we  use  2,500,000  Ibs.  of  brass  wire  and  344,800  Ibs.  of 
iron  wire  annually.  Then,  too,  there  must  be  a  great  supply  of  pink  paper  and  cardboard 
absorbed  in  the  thousands  of  dozens  of  ornamental  boxes  in  which  "  mourning/'  "  nursery," 
and  hair  pins  are  usually  sold.  Altogether,  it  must  be  easy  to  believe  that,  after  all,  such 
an  industry  must  be  of  importance,  and  that  the  little  machine  that  can  make  pins  at  the 
rate  of  millions  a  day  must  be  worthy  of  notice  in  our 
world  of  useful  things  and  unconsidered  trifles. 

Perhaps  we  shall  wonder  at  it  all  the  more,  if  we  hear 
some  one  who  knew  all  about  it  describe  how  the  pins  used 
by  our  mothers  or  our  grandmothers  were  made.  He  says, 
"  One  man  draws  out  the  wire,  another  straightens  it,  a 
third  cuts  it,  a  fourth  points  it,  a  fifth  grinds  it  at  the  top 
for  receiving  the  head.  To  make  this  head  requires  two 
or  three  distinct  operations.  To  put  it  on  is  a  peculiar 
business;  to  whiten  the  pins,  another.  It  is  even  a  trade 
in  itself  to  put  them  into  the  paper.  The  important  business 
of  making  a  pin  is  in  this  manner  divided  into  about 
eighteen  distinct  operations,  which  in  some  manufactories 
are  all  performed  by  distinct  hands,  though  in  others  the 
same  man  will  sometimes  perform  two  or  three  of  them." 

To-day  the  wire  is  transformed  into  pins  at  such  a  rate  that  it  is  really  impossible 
to  count  them  as  they  fall,  or  to  describe  very  clearly  what  becomes  of  the  wire  during 
the  short  interval  which  elapses  from  its  passing  off  the  reel  on  which  each  ring  of 
metal  thread  is  hung.  We  can  watch  its  end  being  first  seized  upon,  then  the  curved  piece 
is  drawn  out  and  straightened  as  it  travels  on  to  be  cut;  then  a  pin's  length  is  pushed  in 
and  held  fast  by  a  kind  of  nipper,  while  an  iron  something  snaps  sharply  down  with  a  rap, 
and  leaves  the  pin's  length  with  a  neat  little  head,  yet  a  good  solid  one  too,  which  will 
hold  on,  unlike  those  laboured  over  by  the  worthy  "  pynners  "  of  old,  that  required  two  or  three 
distinct  operations  to  join  them,  and  a  practised  hand  to  fasten  properly  on  to  the  shank. 

The  bit  of  wire — for  we  cannot  call  it  anything  else  yet,  though  it  is  provided  with  a 
head — is  now  snipped  off  its  parent  coil  by  a  sharp  cutting  instrument,  which  runs  down 
upon  it  with  an  indescribable  snap ;  then  away  it  slides,  as  though  glad  to  be  free,  dropping 
off  an  incline  into  a  kind  of  tray,  where  its  straight  shank  will  slip  through  a  small 
slit,  which  allows  the  newcomer  to  hang  helplessly  by  its  head,  which  cannot  con- 
veniently pass  through  the  opening.  As  it  dangles  here,  in  company  with  many  others  of  its 
kind,  the  blunt  ends  of  all  these  wires  are  sharpened  by  a  revolving  steel  roller,  which 


PIN-STICKING    MACHINE. 


86 


THE    WONDERLAND    OF    WOEK. 


bristles  all  over  with  vicious  file-like  teeth  of  various  sizes  and  degrees ;  as  this  flies  wildly 
round,  it  encounters  the  wires,  and  rubs  and  scrubs  and  changes  the  blunt  ends  it  meets 
into  fine  points  in  a  far  shorter  time  than  I  have  taken  to  describe  this  most  ingenious 
process.  As  each  pin  is  pointed,  it  is  somehow  instantly  pushed  on  and  out  of  the  way 
by  others  that  want  attending  to,  and  come  rushing  on  at  the  rate  of  some  half- 
dozen  a  second,  each,  as  it  is  done  with,  falling  into  the  receptacle  which  stands  under 

the  pointing  roller  at  the 
end  of  the  machine,  and 
out  of  which  we  can 
easily  pick  a  small  hand- 
ful and  note  how  neat 
and  thorough  the  work- 
manship of  such  a  simple 
thing  as  a  machine-made 
pin  can  be. 


NEWALL    WORKS,    BIRMINGHAM,    THE    LARGEST   PIX-FACTORY    IN   THE   "WORLD. 


Yet,  though  they 
have  just  been  made, 
they  do  not  look 
quite  like  the  bright, 
silvery  new  pins  we 
buy.  That,  says  the 
lad  who  "  feeds " 
the  machine,  is  be- 
cause they  are  not 
yet  "  cleaned  or 

coloured ; "  the  machine  only  shapes  them.  They  require  whitening  now,  and  to  see 
this  whitening  process  we  must  step  into  a  small  room  where  a  peculiar  kind  of 
cookery  seems  to  be  going  on,  presided  over  by  a  "colourer."  It  is  that  of  the 
innumerable  shabby  pins  boiling  in  weak  beer,  which  removes  all  the  dirt  and  grease. 
They  are  next  laid  in  a  large  copper  vessel  partly  filled  with  alternate  layers  of  pure  grain- 
tin,  and  pins.  When  layers  enough  have  been  arranged  one  upon  another,  they  are 
covered  with  water  and  sprinkled  with  cream  of  tartar,  after  which  they  are  very  gradually 
and  slowly  heated.  In  a  short  time  we  shall  see  a  change  coming  over  the  contents  of 
our  stewpan,  for  the  acid  acting  upon  the  tin  produces  "  solution  of  tin/'  the  peculiar 
property  of  which  is  to  "  colour "  or  "  silver "  the  innumerable  pins,  giving  them  that 
pretty  new  look  we  missed  so  much  just  now. 


FINISHING    THE    PINS. 


87 


When  they  have  arrived  at  the   proper  degree  of   brightness,  the  newly-made   points 
are  washed  in    clean  water,   and    dried    and   brightened   in    a    "shaking  barrier/'    or  bag 


THE   SEMPSTRESS  S   BEST    FRIEND. 


filled  with  bran,  like  a  monster  pincushion.     Then 

the  pins  are  collected  in  large  boxes   and  carried 

off  to  the  papering-room,  to  be  weighed  and  folded 

up   into  neat  little    packets,   fitted  into   boxes,  or 

most  likely  stuck  side  by   side  in   long   rows   on 

pink,  blue,  and  yellow  sheets  of  paper — an  operation 

which  once  employed  many  children's  busy  fingers, 

but  which  is  now  the  work  of  another  wonderful 

little  self-acting  machine,  which  only  requires  the 

assistance  of  one  girl,  who  feeds  it  with  as  many 

pins  as  are  required  to  be  "  folded  "  for  sale.    All 

she  has  to  do  is  to  drop  the  shining  supply  into  a 

hopper,  which  passes  them  to  a  steel  plate  with  as  many  slits  in  it  as  there  are  to  be  pins  in  a 

row.     The  girl  next  proceeds  to  stir  the  contents  of  the  hopper  with  a  thing  which  looks 

very  like  a  comb,  and  the  shanks  of  the  pins  drop  through  the  slits  in  the  plate,  and  hang  by 

their  heads  as  we  saw  them  doing  when  they  were  being  pointed  in  the  first  machine.     Then. 


A    STITCH   IN    TIME. 


88  THE    WONDERLAND    OF    WORK. 

the  pink  paper  is  neatly  folded  and  crimped,  and  presented  to  the  line  of  sharp  protruding 
points.  All  the  pins  take  their  places  in  a  straight  stiff  row,  as  though  they  were  soldiers 
at  a  review,  and  this  goes  on  so  rapidly  that  before  we  can  feel  quite  sure  that  one  row 
is  finished  we  are  shown  the  whole  array  of  twelve  rows,  consisting  of  516  new  pins, 
which  will  sell  for  about  threepence  in  the  shops.  So  much  for  the  folding-machine. 
From  first  to  last,  the  cutting,  colouring,  and  folding  of  all  these  pins  have  employed 
three  people,  and  they  are  all  very  much  more  to  be  relied  on  than  those  that  it  took 
eighteen  or  twenty  pairs  of  hands  to  fashion,  or  those  earlier  ones  still  that  were  not 
on  any  account  to  be  sold  for  more  than  six-and-eightpence  a  thousand. 

Now  concerning  needles,  which  so  naturally  follow  the  mention  of  pins. 

Needles  of  some  kind  appear  to  have  been  used  in  the  far-away  ages.  Civilised 
or  uncivilised  folks  have  found  out  their  use  and  value,  and  made  them,  all  untaught, 
out  of  tiny  bones  and  hedgeside  thorns.  In  the  British  Museum  we  are  shown  bronze 
needles  three  or  four  inches  in  length  (other  smaller  ones  were  made,  no  doubt),  which 
did  their  work  in  the  world  long  ages  before  that  famous  stone  obelisk  known  as 
Cleopatra's  Needle  was  raised  in  the  far  distant  East. 

It  is  believed  that  the  first  steel  needles  were  made  in  the  fourteenth  century, 
when  so  many  things  began  to  be  improved  upon  by  the  skilful  craftsmen  of  quaint 
old  Nuremberg,  who  were  already  known  at  that  time  for  their  "  lateen/'  or  metal 
drawings  of  iron,  steel,  or  brass  wires,  long  years  after  steel  needles  had  come  into 
use,  and  even  when  they  were  manufactured  in  England  the  steel  wire  of  which  they 
were  made  was  always  brought  from  Germany.  It  was  a  German  who  first  taught 
Englishmen  the  art  of  making  these  now  indispensable  things,  though  the  knowledge 
does  not  appear  to  have  been  thought  of  much  importance.  It  was  not  until  1650  that 
a  small  needle-factory  was  established  in  Buckinghamshire,  where  this  now  thriving 
industry  was  carried  on  for  many  years.  In  a  cyclopaedia  not  thirty  years  old  we  read 
concerning  needles  that  every  "sewing-needle,  however  inconsiderable  in  size,  passes 
through  the  hands  of  120  different  operatives  before  it  is  ready  for  sale/'  So  that 
before  machinery  of  one  kind  and  another  came  to  aid,  needle-making  must  have  been  a 
slow  and  tedious  task.  Many  poor  women,  young  boys,  and  children  were  employed  in 
it,  and  were  miserably  paid  for  the  hard  work  they  did,  while  the  needles  themselves 
were  inferior  and  much  more  expensive  than  they  are  at  present. 

One  especial  part  of  the  work  reserved  for  lads  was  the  eye-piercing.  After  father, 
«r  more  often  mother,  had  flattened  the  head  by  a  blow  from  a  smooth-faced  hammer, 
each  needle  was  passed  on  to  a  boy,  often  a  very  little  one,  who,  placing  it  on  a  steel 
block,  held  the  small  point  of  a  sharp  tool  downwards  on  the  head,  and  gave  it  a  tap  on 
the  upper  side,  then  turning  the  tiny  bit  of  steel,  he  dropped  another  blow  immediately 
over  the  place  he  had  just  now  struck.  The  needle  was  next  pounced  upon  by  a  second 
boy,  whose  business  it  was  to  trim  and  shape  the  rough  hole  into  an  "  eye."  To  do 
this  he  had  to  lay  it  on  a  piece  of  lead  and  drive  a  sharp  tool  clean  through  it.  This 
he  left  in;  then  laying  the  needle  on  a  steel  rest,  with  the  little  punch  still  sticking 
through  the  hole,  he  gave  this  a  tap  with  his  hammer  on  both  sides,  which  cleared 
the  hole  and  made  it  take  the  shape  of  the  punch  employed.  This  sounds  like  a 


HOW    NEEDLES    ARE    MADE.  89 

very  slow  process,  yet  we  are  told  that  some  of  these  little  fellows  had  become  so 
dexterous  through  constant  practice  that  they  could  trim  the  eyes  of  400  needles  in 
an  hour,  dealing  blows  on  the  punches  with  such  unfailing  accuracy  that  they  would 
sometimes  astonish  lookers-on  by  piercing  holes  in  hairs  and  threading  them  through 
one  another,  so  as  to  form  an  almost  invisible  chain — an  evident  proof  of  their  skill. 

In  these  busy  days,  when  needles  in  abundance  are  a  necessity,  a  very  large 
proportion  of  those  used  in  Great  Britain  and  in  many  other  parts  of  the  world  (for 
English  needles  are  now  celebrated)  are  manufactured  not  only  in  Birmingham,  but 
at  Hathersage,  Studley,  and  Alcester,  and  more  especially  at  Redditch,  a  pretty  rural 
town  in  Worcestershire,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  which  a  great  deal  of  the  emery 
necessary  for  the  grinding  and  scouring  of  these  useful  articles  is  found. 

Any  one  who  has  ever  used  a  needle  can  easily  believe  that  its  value  and  fine  quality 
depend  on  that  of  the  steel  wire  of  which  it  is  formed.  Needle-makers  do  not  make 
or  "  draw  "  this  wire  themselves,  but  buy  it  wholesale  at  Sheffield  or  Birmingham.  The  best 
thing  for  us  to  do  will  be  to  follow  a  quantity  of  it  from  the  railway  wharf  to  the  store- 
room of  one  of  these  large  establishments,  and  note  what  is  done  with  it  there. 

The  first  consideration  seems  to  be  preservation  of  each  great  coil  or  bundle  of  shining 
wire  from  rust  It  is  well  covered  up,  and  then  hung  round  the  dingy  room  (a  nice  warm 
one,  by  the  way)  on  wooden  bars  or  racks.  As  the  wire  is  of  different  degrees  of 
thickness,  according  to  the  varying  sizes  of  the  needles  to  be  made  out  of  it,  it  is 
tested  by  means  of  a  steel  gauge,  the  edge  of  which  is  perforated  with  small  numbered 
slits  of  different  sizes,  into  which  a  sample  of  the  wire  is  fitted.  Each  coil  weighs  about 
fourteen  pounds,  and  is,  I  am  told,  twenty-four  inches  in  diameter;  if  it  were  less  it 
would  be  more  troublesome  to  straighten  the  short  pieces  into  which  it  will  presently 
be  cut.  The  length  of  the  wire  in  each  bundle  varies  according  to  the  thickness  of  it, 
and  there  is,  as  you  know,  a  great  range  from  No.  1  to  No.  12,  which  are  the  sizes  of 
ordinary  sewing-needles.  We  can  count  only  twenty-two  thicknesses  of  wire  to  the 
inch  in  No.  1,  while  in  No.  12  there  are  two  hundred.  If  we  were  to  uncoil  and 
straighten  out  this  No.  12  it  would  stretch  over  a  mile  and  a  quarter.  Imagine  a 
line  of  nearly  50,000  needles,  and  imagine  too  what  a  different  style  of  needle  these 
wires  will  in  turn  form.  Some  almost  as  thin  as  a  hair  will  be  made  into  dainty 
things  fit  to  stitch  a  fairy's  wardrobe  with;  others  will  be  stout  and  strong  enough  to 
pierce  through  coarse  canvas  sails,  thick  carpets,  or  rough  coarse  sacking.  Some  bearing 
behind  them  an  almost  invisible  train  of  the  finest  cambric  cotton  or  soft  yielding  silk; 
others  leading  along  packthread,  twine,  or  thread  as  strong  as  string.  There  are  also 
exceptional  needles,  such  as  surgeons  use  for  sewing  up  wounds  and  for  other  purposes. 
They  are  not  at  all  like  ordinary  ones ;  each  is  made  singly,  ground,  and  polished  by  hand. 

But  now  to  business,  for  some  of  the  great  coils  are  being  carried  off  to  the  "  cutting- 
shop/'  where  they  are  to  be  snapped  into  many  thousand  lengths  of  two  needles  each ; 
and  as  these  little  pieces  have  so  lately  formed  part  of  a  circle  of  wire — and  curved 
needles  would  certainly  be  useless — they  must  next  be  straightened.  It  is  a  curious 
process,  and  one  worth  watching ;  so  come  along,  and  open  your  eyes  wide. 

The  worker  who  is  going  to  cut   them    grasps  two    big  handfuls  of  wire,  and  after 


90 


THE    WONDERLAND    OF    WORK. 


determining,  by  means  of  a  little  measure,  the  length  they  are  to  be  cut — that  of  two 
needles  in  one — he  holds  them  between  the  open  blades  of  a  large  sharp  pair  of  shears  or 
scissors,  which  are  fixed  against  the  wall,  and  snips  them  sharply  off  by  pressing  one  of  the 
handles  of  the  shears,  which  he  moves  with  his  leg  by  means  of  a  string-sort  of  con- 
trivance he  slips  it  into. 

And  next  for  the  curious  operation  of  "  straightening "  out  the  slight  curve,  which  at 
one  time  was  done  by  hand  and  mallet — a  tedious  enough  process  it  must  have  been. 
Now  the  worker  half  fills  two  strong  iron  rings,  some  six  or  seven  inches  in  diameter, 
with  the  short  lengths  of  wire,  and  using  a  curved  bar  of  iron  with  a  handle  at  each 
end  and  two  openings  along  its  centre,  he  places  the  rings  with  the  needles  in  them  on  a 
flat  iron  plate  with  a  fire  under  it.  The  slits  in  the  iron  bar  pass  over  the  rings,  and  are 
only  stayed  by  the  projecting  ends  of  the  wires,  enabling  him  by  holding  fast  the  handles 
to  move  the  rings,  and  their  contents,  while  pressing  heavily  as  he  rolls  them  up  and  down. 

The  action  of  one  slim  wire  on  another  tends  to  straighten 
and  equalise  the  whole  mass,  and  by  the  time  he  turns 
them  out  of  the  rings  the  little  curved  bits  will  be  all 
as  straight  as  new  needles  should  be,  though  they  will 
not  otherwise  as  yet  particularly  remind  you  of  any  such 
useful  things ;  for  they  have  neither  eye  nor  point,  being 
blunt  and  clumsy  at  each  end,  and  dulled  by  exposure  to 
the  fire — altogether  most  unpromising  morsels  of  metal. 

The  next  operation  is  that  of  "pointing."  Until 
lately  this  has  been  a  very  dangerous  and  distressing  task, 
always  done  by  a  "  dry  grinder,"  who,  seated  in  front  of 
a  large  revolving  gritstone,  took  up  a  handful  of  the  wires 
to  be  pointed  and  held  their  ends  to  the  stone,  pressing 

them  firmly  to  it  with  his  other  hand,  turning  them  about  the  while  until  they  began  to 
get  sharp,  and  finally,  amid  a  shower  of  flying  sparks,  showed  the  long  tapering  points 
he  was  aiming  to  produce.  But  this  treacherous  stream  of  fine  steel  and  stone  dust,  getting 
down  his  throat  and  settling  on  the  poor  worker's  lungs,  did  much  mischief,  and  in- 
variably caused  him  a  painful  malady  too  well  known  as  grinder's  asthma. 

Many  humane  and  skilful  men  tried  at  various  times  to  introduce  improvements  on 
this  dangerous  method  of  sharpening  steel ;  but,  strangely  enough,  the  "  grinders "  them- 
selves stoutly  opposed  all  and  any  innovations  that,  by  decreasing  the  danger  of  their 
task,  might  also  decrease  the  wages  they  received  for  it.  Actually,  when  expensive  new 
machinery  for  the  purpose  was  first  brought  to  Redditch  in  1844,  the  enraged  "pointers" 
rose  in  a  body  and  destroyed  it,  declaring  that  they  would  be  ruined  by  such  aid ! 

But  truly  it  is  said  "  time  works  wonders,"  and  now  we  see  the  needles  surely 
and  expeditiously  pointed  at  the  rate  of  40,000  an  hour  by  means  of  a  simple  enough 
machine  'nvented  in  Germany,  the  use  of  which,  once  tolerated,  saved  many  a  life.  The 
pointing-machine  consists  of  a  revolving  metal  wheel,  on  which  the  pointless  wires  drop 
from  an  inclined  tray,  to  be  held  fast  by  a  vulcanised  india-rubber  band  which  encircles 
it.  As  the  wheel  turns,  the  ends  of  the  wires  meet  a  hollow  grindstone  placed  at  right 


HEEDLE 


THE    NEEDLE-MAKERS. 


91 


angles  to  the  wheel,  which,  as  they  touch  it,  rolls  them  round  and  points  the  wires  in 
the  most  perfect  manner,  the  dan- 
gerous fiery  white  dust  produced 
being  safely  disposed  of  by  means 
of  a  fan  exhaust,  which  sends  it 
flying  down  a  tube,  and  so  safely 
out  of  the  worker's  way. 

Next   for  the    eye,   that    most 
important    part  of    a  needle,  which 


must  be  carefully  perfo- 
wise  it  will  cut  and  fray 
through  it.  To  see  how 
made,  we  must  pass  through 
where  a  stamping-machine, 
German  invention,  is  busy. 


rated  and  finished,  other- 
trie  silk  or  thread  passed 
these  numerous  eyes  are 
to  the  "  stamping-shop/' 
which  is  also,  I  believe,  a 
It  is  a  polid  block  of  stone,  with  a  mass  of  iron  on  its  upper 


TEMPERTVO,    STAMPING,    AND    POINTING. 


,/ 

surface.     On  the    upper  side  of  this  is  placed  the  under  half   of   a  die;  above  it   is  hung 


92  THE    WONDERLAND    OF    WORK. 

a  heavy  hammer  which  weighs  forty  or  fifty  pounds,  and  on  the  face  of  which  vi 
fixed  the  other  and  upper  luilf  of  the  same  die.  This  sturdy  hammer,  or  "  ram/'  is 
regulated  by  a  lever  directed  by  the  worker's  foot,  and  can  be  brought  down  with 
a  heavy  "thud"  straight  on  to  the  sounding  iron  bed,  or  lower  die,  into  which  the 
man  steadily  drops  the  steel  wires  one  by  one,  bringing  down  the  hammer  at  the  same 
moment.  Up  it  goes  again,  and  the  wires  slip  into  an  iron  pan,  each  one  having  now 
a  channel  or  "  gutter,"  as  it  is  called,  with  a  slight  depression  to  show  where  the 
eye  will  be.  So  rapidly  is  this  "  guttering"  done,  that  one  worker  alone  has  prepared 
in  one  hour  almost  8,000  needles  for  the  piercer,  whose  turn  it  is  to  take  them. 
These  " piercers,"  mostly  boys,  work  at  small  hand-presses.  They  must,  have  good 
eyes  and  nimble,  skilful  fingers  for  the  work  before  them,  which  consists  in  taking 
pieces  of  wire  and  spreading  them  out  upon  an  iron  slab,  keeping  all  the  ends  of  these 
numberless  sharp  points  collected  in  the  hand.  The  middle  is  then  brought  through 
the  press,  and  being  stopped  for  a  moment,  down  come  the  hardened  steel  pins,  that 
dash  two  little  bits  or  "  eyes "  one  against  the  other  in  the  centre  of  each  wire ;  but  these 
eyes  are  far  from  complete,  and  have  to  be  "  spitted/'  an  operation  which  is  also  performed 
by  boys,  who  run  their  "  spits "  through  each  hole,  and  so  collect  a  double  solid  comb  or 
steel  fringe  of  about  a  hundred  needles,  which  will  then  be  handed  over  to  be  "  filed " — 
that  is,  to  have  removed  all  the  surplus  metal  and  little  roughnesses  left  by  the  stamping. 
Next  these  fringes  of  needles  are  slipped  under  a  clamp,  fashioned  so  as  to  hold  them  firmly 
down  at  the  edges;  the  ridges  are  firmly  and  rapidly  filed  by  well-skilled  workers,  who 
then  take  the  spitted  wires,  and  bending  them  in  the  middle,  snap  them  into  two  halves. 
One  row  held  together  by  the  spit  is  placed  in  a  kind  of  pliers,  and  a  sweep  of  the  file 
removes  all  roughness  and  marks  of  its  late  attachment.  Then  the  spits  are  withdrawn, 
and  for  the  first  time  we  realise  that  ordinary  needles  are  really  in  progress  of  manufacture. 
But  as  yet  they  would  bend  or  break  very  easily,  and  so  must  be  hardened — that  is, 
spread  out  in  great  numbers  on  plates  of  sheet-iron,  and  placed  in  a  "  muffle "  or  furnace 
with  arched  doors  and  fitted  with  bars,  on  which  the  wires  can  rest  and  bake  until  they 
are  of  a  white  heat  or  straw-colour.  They  are  then  withdrawn  and  put  into  a  cistern  fitted 
with  a  perforated  vessel  which  is  filled  with  water  or  oil,  and  left  there  till  they  are  cold ; 
they  are  then  washed  in  alkaline  liquor  and  dried.  They  still  need  to  be  tempered, 
which  is  done  by  putting  them  on  an  iron  plate  with  a  fire  under  it  for  a  short  time ;  on 
this  they  are  gently  shaken.  As  this  "tempering"  sometimes  slightly  bends  them, 
especially  if  hardened  in  water,  they  are  handed  over  to  a  worker  to  be  hammered  straight. 
To  make  them  look  bright  and  sharp  they  must  be  "  scoured ;  "  to  watch  which  curious  process 
we  must  go  downstairs  to  the  scouring- room,  where  are  a  number  of  men  engaged  in 
arranging  large  numbers  of  needles  in  parallel  bundles  on  pieces  of  rough  canvas.  Among, 
or  rather  beside,  the  bundles  they  place  a  mess  of  soft-soap,  oil,  emery,  and  fine  sand, 
and  then  roll  them  up  into  long  parcels,  which  are  corded  tightly  and  carefully  round. 
These  parcels  are  then  put  under  heavy  slabs  weighted  with  iron,  or  what  we  might  have 
taken  for  large  and  overgrown  mangles  driven  by  steam-power;  by  this  means  hundreds 
!>f  thousands  of  needles  are  rolled  about  one  over  the  other  for  several  days,  being  taken 
out  at  intervals  to  be  washed  in  soap-suds  and  re-packed  with  the  soft-soap  mixture.  At 


FINISHING    THE    NEEDLES.  93 

last  they  are  put  into  a  thing  like  a  sieve,  and  so  dexterously  shaken  that  somehow  most 
of  the  needles  arrange  themselves  side  by  side,  so  as  to  be  easily  picked  out  and  placed 
in  neat  little  heaps  ready  for  the  "bright-room/'  where  the  "header/'  a  tidy  girl,  next 
takes  them  in  hand  to  turn  all  the  heads  one  way.  A  puzzling  business  it  looks  to  sort 
that  great  tangled  mass  of  steel,  but  in  a  twinkling  the  young  woman  seems  to  have 
obtained  a  certain  amount  of  order,  and  while  we  are  watching  the  rapid  movement  of  her 
deft  fingers,  which,  by-the-bye,  need  thick  washleather  gloves,  the  whole  tangled  mass  has 
fallen  into  rank  and  file — their  heads  one  way,  the  points  the  other.  Then  comes  "  picking  for 
crooks/'  that  is,  picking  out  all  the  crooked  and  defective  needles.  This  a  woman  sitting  at  a 
queer-shaped  little  table  does,  by  rolling  over  and  over  single  layers  of  needles,  surely  and 
swiftly  detecting  all  those  that  are  in  the  least  imperfect.  Of  course  these  are  many,  but 
her  quick  eye  and  hands  soon  see  and  sort  out.  At  the  least  defect  she  puts  them  from 
the  chosen  lot.  Then  they  are  "  handed/'  that  is,  those  that  are  either  too  long  or  too  short 
are  turned  out,  and  the  whole  mass  is  especially  cleared  of  broken-eyed  or  broken-pointed 
members.  It  is  curious  to  see  how  these  girls,  with  their  sharp,  well-trained  eyes,  can  spy 
out  offenders  at  a  glance,  even  when  hidden  away  in  a  bundle  containing  some  thousands, 
deftly  catching  them  up  with  a  needle,  and  throwing  them  aside  as  unworthy  their  bright, 
companionship.  In  some  works,  I  believe,  even  this  is  now  done  by  machinery. 

At  last  we  are  bound  for  the  grinding  and  finishing-room,  in  which  are  found  two 
lines  of  wheels,  all  revolving  rapidly  by  means  of  steam.  The  engine-room  is  just  below. 
Here  the  grinders,  holding  a  handful  of  needles  each,  apply  them  to  one  of  the  small  stones, 
revolving  so  swiftly  that  our  dazzled  eyes  cannot  follow  its  turns.  Having  soon  smoothed 
off  any  little  inequality  in  eye  or  point,  he  then  hands  his  work  over  to  the  "polisher/* 
and  it  has  only  now  to  pass  through  a  final  touch-up  on  a  polishing-bob,  with  putty  powder 
sprinkled  on  small  rotating  wooden  wheels,  covered  with  soft,  comfortable  chamois  leather, 
before  it  is  at  length  pronounced  ready  for  packing  in  those  little,  slate-coloured  paper  cases 
so  familiar  to  all  industrious  ladies. 

Even  the  making  of  these  papers,  which  are  soon  flung  aside  with  little  concern,  employs 
a  great  many  people;  and  we  are  shown  some  curious  machines  which  cut  and  fold  so 
expertly  that  we  can  scarcely  wonder  when  we  are  told  that  by  their  aid,  and  by  constant 
practice,  many  of  these  women  can  count  out  and  neatly  paper  somewhere  about  8,000 
needles  in  one  hour.  We  cannot  help  thinking  how,  at  that  rate,  surely  needles  enough 
would  be  papered  in  a  day  to  serve  all  the  world's  sempstresses  for  a  year;  yet  we  are 
told  that  from  the  Redditch  British  Needle  Mills  alone  about  two  hundred  millions  of  the 
very  best  kind  of  needles  are  annually  sent  on  their  travels,  not  to  mention  a  great  number 
of  more  ordinary  and  extraordinary  kinds,  from  the  huge  packing  and  sail  needle  to  the 
sort  used  for  the  tiniest  gloves.  When  we  remember  that  there  are  also  large  manufactories 
in  France  and  Germany,  as  well  as  other  parts  of  England,  we  give  over  trying  to  guess 
at  the  amount  of  sewing  of  one  kind  or  another  that  must  be  constantly  going  on  all  over 
the  civilised  world.  How  did  the  Greek  and  Roman  women  ever  get  their  work  done? 

Before  leaving  this  place  let  us  peep  into  one  of  those  many  shabby  little  bags  from 
which  we  have  seen  the  needle-scourer  so  constantly  helping  himself.  We  find  that  they 
all  contain  supplies  of  shining  blue-brown  emery  of  various  degrees  of  fineness.  This 


94  THE    WONDEBLAND    OF    WOEK. 

substance  is  one  much  employed  not  only  by  these  needle -makers,  but  also  by  cutlers, 
smiths,  engineers,  locksmiths,  jewellers,  and  all  workers  in  metal,  by  lapidaries  in  the 
cutting  and  finishing  of  precious  stones,  by  opticians  in  the  preparation  of  the  finer 
kinds  of  lenses,  by  glass-grinders,  marble-polishers,  and  many  other  workers;  in  fact,  all 
sorts  of  busy  folks  seem  to  find  uses  for  it.  Even  our  own  industrious  aunts  and  mothers 
and  sisters  have  a  neat  little  "  emery-bag "  hidden  away  somewhere  in  their  workboxes, 
whilst  Betty  the  housemaid  declares  that  there  is  nothing  so  useful  as  this  same  powder 
when  she  wants  to  get  out  any  rust-spots,  or  put  an  extra  polish  on  to  the  steel  stove 
and  fire-irons.  The  men  of  the  family  also  frequently  patronise  it  in  the  shape  of  hones 
and  razor-strops,  sold  under  many  names,  but  equally  composed  of  emery,  ground -glass,  and 
paper  pulp. 

What,  then,  is  this  useful  substance,  we  ask,  and  whence  do  we  get  it  ?  Common  as 
it  is,  no  one  here  seems  rightly  to  know  anything  concerning  it  more  than,  as  one  of  the 
needle -scourers,  a  Yorkshireman,  hesitatingly  observes,  "  It  war  stoof  as  coom  fram  the 
iron-warks  nigh."  But  we  get  further  information  on  the  subject,  and  find  that  this 
infusible  powder  is  a  mineral  consisting  mostly  of  alumina  combined  with  a  small 
proportion  of  iron,  that  it  is  not  affected  or  acted  upon  by  acids,  and  that  it  is  found 
in  masses  lying  imbedded  in  certain  rocks  situated  in  various  parts  of  the  world,  especially 
in  Turkey,  Persia,  and  Sweden,  only  a  small  proportion  being  obtained  from  the 
.English  iron-mines. 

Before  anything  else  can  be  done  with  them,  the  big  uneven  lumps  have  to  be 
broken  into  small  pieces,  and  these  are  ground  to  a  rough  powder,  either  in  large  iron 
mortars  or  in  steel  mills.  This  powder,  which  requires  careful  washing,  is  then  sifted 
through  sieves  having  networks  of  different-sized  wires.  According  to  the  closeness  of 
these,  the  powder  is  numbered,  which  is  a  great  convenience  to  the  worker,  who  knows 
at  once  the  fineness  and  kind  he  requires,  whether  in  its  dry  state  or  in  the  form  of 
emery  cloth  or  paper — things  easily  made,  the  powder  being  sifted  on  either  material 
while  newly  coated  with  glue.  These  cloths  are  often  used  wrapped  round  bits  of  wood, 
and  form  a  kind  of  file,  or  long  flat  slabs  are  dipped  into  strong  glue  and  then  into 
emery.  As  to  the  emery-cake,  it  appears  to  be  composed  merely  of  the  powder  and 
plenty  of  beeswax  mixed  into  a  kind  of  paste  that  is  well  worked  about  in  water, 
and  made  into  little  lumps  of  brownish  dough,  which  is  very  useful,  I  am  told,  in  the 
dressing  of  the  buff-edged  wheels  we  so  constantly  find  revolving  in  every  busy  corner 
of  our  Wonderland. 

There  is  one  kind  of  tool  that  we  find  in  some  form  or  other  in  almost  every  workshop, 
whether  it  be  of  the  wood  or  the  iron  worker,  and  this  is  the  file.  It  is  made  in  many 
shapes  and  degrees  of  coarseness  and  fineness,  from  the  coarse  rasps  that  the  horseshoer  and 
woodworker  uses,  to  the  fine  dead  smooth  watchmaker's  file,  whose  teeth  are  so  fine  that 
you  can  hardly  see  them.  A  truly  wonderful  tool  is  this  file  ;  and  yet  it  is  simply  a  piece 
of  steel  with  teeth  cut  in  it  in  single  rows,  which  are  called  single-cut,  and  double  rows,  one 
crossing  the  other,  which  are  called  double-cut  files.  The  steel  must  be  of  the  finest 
quality  of  tool  steel,  and  the  names  of  the  various  shapes  are  :  flat,  square,  round,  half- 
round,  three-cornered,  warding,  or  thin  files,  and  so  on  ;  but  these  general  shapes  are  sub- 


FILES    AND    FILE-CUTTING. 


95 


THE  FILE-CUTTEB'S  ANVIL. 


divided  into  many  others,  as  rat-tailed  (which  means  a  well-tempered  round  or  square  file), 
parallel  files,  in  which  the  width  and  thickness  are  equal  from  end  to  end.  Here  you  see  a 
file-cutter's  shop  ;  the  workmen  sitting  at  their  low 
benches  cutting  files  with  their  oddly  shaped  hammers 
and  short,  stubby  chisels. 

The  file-cutter's  anvil,  &,  rests  upon  a  stone  block, 
a.  At  F  is  the  gauge  to  determine  the  length  to  cut 
off  the  blank,  by  means  of  the  chisel,  e.  At  c  is  the 
forging  block,  and  at  d  is  a  block  for  shaping  half- 
round  files.  This  block,  as  you  see,  is  let  into  the 
anvil  so  that  it  may  be  removed  and  replaced  by  one 
suitable  for  other  shapes  of  files.  After  the  files  are 
forged,  their  surfaces  are  ground  smooth  upon  a  grind- 
stone that  is  about  five  or  six  feet  in  diameter  when 
it  is  new,  arid  runs  about  two  hundred  revolutions  in 
a  minute.  But  as  the  stone  wears  srn  Her,  it  is  made 
to  run  faster.  They  must  not  be  made  to  run  too 
fast,  however,  or  they  will  be  liable  to  burst  into  frag- 
ments and  commit  great  destruction,,  At  the  railway 
works  at  Ashford,  in  Kent,  two  workmen  were  stand- 
ing one  on  each  side  of  a  large  grinding-stone,  when  the  stone  burst  into  many  pieces. 
The  grinder's  "horse,"  as  he  terms  the  bench  he  sits  on,  was  held  by  a  chain  as  thick  as 
your  finger,  but  the  chain  wras  snapped  like  a  pipe-stem,  and  the  horse  thrown  back, 
knocking  part  of  the  wall  down  ;  part  of  the  stone  went  through  the  roof,  and  one  piece, 
weighing  six  or  eight  hundred  pounds,' was  found  several  -months  afterwards  in  a  water- 
tank  that  was  about  sixty  feet  higher  than  the  grinding 
building.  Fortunately,  nobody  was  hurt,  but  both  the 
men  were  covered  with  mud  out  of  the  grindstone  trough, 
*  and  one  of  them,  after  scraping  the  mud  from  his  eyes 
and  face,  looked  first  at  the  roof  of  the  building  and  then 
at  the  general  destruction  around  him,  and  remarked  in 
great  astonishment,  "Why!  there  must  a  bin  a  'splosion 
or  somethin*  !  ' '  which  made  his  fellow- workman  laugh 
heartily,  in  spite  of  the  narrow  escape  he  had  just  had. 

From  the  grinder  the  files  go  to  the  cutter,  whose 
block,  as  you  see,  is  composed,  for  large  files,  of  a  base, 
a,  of  stone  about  18  inches  square,  and  supports  an  iron 
block,  5,  which  has  a  recess  to  receive  the  file  to  be  cut. 
But  between  the  file  and  the  bottom  of  the  recess  a  lead 
block  is  put,  so  that  the  teeth  on  the  bottom  side  of  the 
file  will  not  be  damaged  when  cutting  the  teeth  on  the 
top  side.  For  small  files,  a  block  or  an  iron  stand  is  used,  because  the  blows  are  light. 
In  either  case,  the  file  is  held  on  the  block  by  a  leather  strap,  c  c,  having  a  loop  at  d  into 


BLOCK  FOB  LARGE  FILES. 


96 


THE    WONDERLAND    OF    WORK. 


which  the  cutter  places  his  foot.  The  file-cutter's  hammers  are  the  queerest  and  most 
primitive-looking  ones  to  be  found  in  any  trade,  looking  more  like  the  crude  hammers 
found  among  the  relics  of  those  old  and  uncivilized  nations  of  whom  we  now  know  but 
little  more  than  what  we  can  glean  from  their  burial-mounds.  But  the  file-cutter's 
hammer  is  very  effective  in  striking  a  dull  heavy  blow  without  much  if  any  rebound  to  it. 
The  hammer  at  a  is  used  for  rasps  and  coarse  files,  and  weighs  from  seven  to  eight  pounds. 


BLOCK   FOE   SMALL   FILES. 


THE   FILE-CUTTING    CHISEL   SHOWN   ENLARGED. 


THE  FILE  CUTTER'S  HAMMERS  AND  CHISELS. 


That  at  &,  for  ordinary  work,  weighs  about  five  pounds.  For  small  files  the  hammer  at 
5  is  used,  weighing  but  a  few  ounces.  The  form  of  chisel  used  is  shown  at  d  and  e,  and 
it  is  held,  as  you  see,  at  an  angle,  so  that  one  face  stands  parallel  with  the  front  face  of 
the  tooth,  whose  shape  at  the  cutting  end  is  just  as  it  is  shown  in  the  enlarged  view. 

He  places  the  file  in  the  block  with  its  tang  or  handle  end  towards  him,  sets  the  chisel 
upon  it  with  the  cutting  edge  at  an  angle  or  diagonal  across  the  file,  and  with  a  blow 
produces  a  cut  throwing  up  a  tiny  ridge  or  tooth  ;  then  forward  goes  the  chisel  and  down 
goes  the  hammer,  producing  another  tooth,  the  blows  falling  so  quickly  that  both  hands 


FILES    AND    FILE-CUTTING. 


97 


are  kept  in  motion.  By  going  along  the  file  in  this  way  once  only  lie  produces  a  single- 
cut,  but  most  files  are  double-cut,  which  is  that  a  second  course  of  chisel  cuts  ar,e  carried 
along  the  file,  the  chisel  slanting  to  the  opposite  direction  across  the  file,  so  that  the  second 
course  divides  up  the  first  one  into  numerous  teeth.  The  second  course  requires  lighter 
blows  than  the  first  one,  but  must  be  just  as  evenly  cut. 

If  you  examine  a  smooth  file  you  will  be  astonished  that  they  are  so  regularly  spaced, 
when  the  cutter  has  nothing  to  guide  him  in  adjusting  the  chisel  Let  us  watch  a 
cutter  as  he  begins  again  after  he  has  been  away  to  sharpen  the  chisel.  First,  you  see,  he 
rests  the  chisel  on  the  face  of  the  file,  and  moves  it  along  until  it  touches  the  last  cut, 


FlLfl-CUTTlAii. 


which  is  his  starting-point,  and  then  moves  it  forward  the  proper  distance  and  strikes  it, 
cutting  a  recess  across  the  file.  After  getting  the  first  cut  right,  along  he  goes,. blow  after 
blow  falling  without  any  hesitation  or  further  trial.  A  great  deal  of  what  is  called  the 
skill  of  workmen  lies  in  the  exercise  of  thought  and  common-sense,  but  in  a  case  of  this 
kind  it  is  nothing  but  experience,  and  so  thoroughly  do  some  men  attain  this  experience, 
that  they  will  cut  a  fine,  smooth  file  and  then  a  rough  one,  and  read  a  newspaper  while 
both  hands  are  actively  at  work  with  hammer  and  chisel. 

For  a  great  many  years  the  most  skilful  mechanics  failed  in  their  attempts  to  cut  files 
by  machinery,  for  there  appeared  to  be  some  secret  in  file-cutting  that  baffled  all  their 
efforts.  Within  the  last  few  years,  however,  the  problem  has  been  completely  solved,  and 
there  are  large  manufactories,  such  as  the  "  Nicholson  Works,"  at  Providence,  in  Rhode 
Island,  where  dozens  of  busy  machines  are  at  work  cutting  files  of  all  kinds  and  shapes,  so 
that  a  very  large  proportion  of  the  files  used  in  America  are  machine-cut. 

After  the  cutting  comes  the  hardening,  for  which  the  teeth  are  first  coated  with  a 


98 


THE    WONDERLAND    OF    WORK. 


paste  composed  of  salt,  charcoal,  and  burnt  leather  or  flour  paste,  and  then  heated  in  a  bath 
of  melted  lead,  and  when  red-hot  plunged  into  water  which  contains  as  much  salt  as  it  will 

hold  without  the  salt  settling.  A 
dip  for  a  few  minutes  in  a  weak 
bath  of  oxalic  acid  removes  the 
burnt  paste  from  the  teeth,  a  brush 
cleans  them,  and  a  night  in  a  bath 
of  thick  lime-water  prevents  them 
from  rusting.  They  are  then  dried 
quickly  by  heat  and  are  ready  for 
sorting  and  packing. 

If  we  stand  at  the  door  of  the 
file-cutter,  however,  we  shall  some- 
times see  a  package  of  files  come 
back  to  be  recut,  because  the  teeth 
have  worn  dull.  In  this  case,  the 
old  teeth  are  simply  ground  out  and 
new  ones  are  cut  in.  But  of  late 
years  a  new  and  curious  method  of 
sharpening  old  files  has  been  found. 
It  consists  of  projecting  a  stream  of 


very  fine  sand  against  the  backs  of 
the  file  teeth,  and  thus  grinding 
them  to  a  sharp  edge  again.  To 
throw  the  sand  with  sufficient  force  against  the  teeth, 
jets  of  steam  at  a  pressure  of  about  sixty  pounds  are 
used.  The  sand  is  put  in  the  box,  which  also  contains 
water,  and  the  file,  held  in  the  claws  c,  is  passed 
between  the  steam  nozzles  A  A,  and  into  the  steam 
box,  the  force  of  the  stream  lifting  the  sand  up  through 
the  pipes  K  K.  All  the  remainder  of  the  parts,  you 
see,  is  simply  framework  to  support  the  file-holder  c. 
Even  new  files  are  made  sharper  by  putting  them 
under  the  sand-blast. 

There  is  another  use  to  which  the  sand-blast  has 
been  put,  and  that  you  may  just  as  well  be  told  of 
here,  although  it  has  nothing  to  do  with  file- 
making.  It  has  been  called  engraving  on  glass  ; 
but  it  can  hardly  be  called  engraving,  as  it  does 
not  cut  such  very  clear  lines.  A  pattern  is  put 
over  the  glass  article  to  be  sand-blasted,  and 
,the  sand  projecting  through  the  holes  in  this  pattern  cuts  away  the  surface  of  the  glass, 
leaving  it  with  a  dull,  frosty  appearance  that  is  very  pleasing  to  the  eye. 


FTLE-SHAEPENINO   WITH  THE   SAND-BLAST. 


"BY    HAMMEB,   ANJL) 


ALL  ARTS  DO  STAND. 

The  Blacksmith's  Motto. 


OUR    KNIVES   AND   FORKS  AND   SPOONS. 

fTlHE  inquiry  has  very  often  been 
•*•  made,  "  What  becomes  of  all  the 
pins?"  That,  of  course,  is  altogether 
unanswerable.  But  can  anybody  'tell 
me  what  does  become  of  the  penknives? 

Think  of  all  the  schoolboys  in  our  England 
alone  who  are  continually  getting  a  new  knife, 
either  by  an  outlay  of  their  own  pocket-money, 
or  more  often  still  from  good-natured  friends  and  relations,  who  find  it  a  most  ready 
and  acceptable  gift,  as  no  matter  how  lately  a  lad  was  seen  with  one  it  is  sure  to  be 
broken,  or,  more  likely,  to  have  vanished  "somewhere,"  that  great  limbo  of  schoolboy 
property  where  everything  was  last  seen.  A  penknife  is  a  trifle  scarcely  worth  making  a 
fuss  about,  you  may  think,  yet  a  good  ordinary  three-bladed  knife  goes  through  over  a 


100  THE    WONDERLAND    OF    WORK. 

hundred  processes  in  the  making ;  and  I  am  told  of  one  house  in  Sheffield,  the  great  centre 
of  the  cutlery  trade,  that  every  week  turns  out  no  less  than  1,500  dozens  of  these  nowise 
to  be  despised  articles,  of  which  they  show  some  12,000  different  patterns  to  choose  from. 

The  earliest  specimen  of  cutlery  known  was  the  "  whittle  " — ancient  Chaucer  describes 
one  of  his  pilgrims  owning  it,  "A  Sheffield  thwytel  bare  he  in  his  hose" — a  rude,  rough 
article  enough  compared  with  what  we  call  a  spring-knife;  its  blade  was  made  of  bar 
steel,  placed  in  a  clumsy  wooden  or  horn  handle.  And  yet  Gilbert,  Earl  of  Shrewsbury, 
thought  so  well  of  them  that  he  sent  Lord  Burghley  a  case  of  "  Hallamshire  whittels, 
beinge  suche  fruictes  as  his  pore  country  afforded  with  fame  throughout  the  realme."  After 
a  long  time  this  was  succeeded  by  the  "  jack-knif e,"  a  great  improvement  upon  the  whittle, 
inasmuch  as  its  sturdy  blade  could,  though  with  some  difficulty,  be  doubled  down  into 
a  groove  in  the  stout  handle,  but  there  was  no  spring  to  make  it  an  easy  task. 

To  watch  the  making  of  a  spring  or  pocket  knife  we  must  first  peep  into  one  of 
a  number  of  small  dingy-looking  rooms,  in  which  we  shall  find  either  one  or  two  men 
at  work  roughing  out  dozens  of  blades,  which,  if  for  spring-knives,  are  made  of  cast-steel 
only.  On  one  side  of  the  apartment  a  bright  clear  fire  is  burning.  Near  it  is  a  large 
trough  full  of  coke,  specially  prepared.  Another  trough  full  of  cold  water  stands  by  a 
small  anvil,  which,  together  with  hammers,  some  dies,  and  a  number  of  bars  of  the 
best  cast-steel,  form  all  the  contents  of  this  primitive-looking  workshop. 

A  man  known  as  "  the  forger "  is  busily  employed  working  the  bellows  with  one  hand, 
while  with  the  other  he  frequently  takes  out  a  red-white  bar  of  steel,  the  end  of  which 
reaches  to  the  centre  of  the  fire.  This  he  carefully  examines,  for  the  heating  of  the  bar 
requires  great  skill,  care,  and  experience,  as  if  it  gets  at  all  overheated  it  will  become 
altogether  useless  for  any  kind  of  cutlery,  and  if  not  heated  enough  it  will  not  have 
acquired  the  softness  necessary  for  shaping  into  the  thin  sharp  blades  required  to  cut  with. 
But  when  the  forger  judges  the  metal  to  have  arrived  at  a  proper  degree  of  heat,  he 
places  the  end  of  it  on  his  anvil,  and  quickly  "strikes"  it  into  a  blade,  using  a  hammer 
the  size  of  which  depends  upon  the  work  he  has  to  fashion :  for  small  penknife-blades  its 
striking  surface  should  not  extend  over  more  than  an  inch.  When  the  blade  is  thus  roughly 
struck  into  shape,  it  is  cut  off  the  metal  bar,  which  is  again  heated,  to  go  through  the 
same  process,  and  the  blade  is  placed  with  others  ready  for  the  "grinder,"  whose  business 
it  is  to  "  scorch "  or  rough-grind  the  tangs,  that  is,  the  top  parts  where  the  blades  join  into 
the  handles,  and  also  to  give  them  a  slight  "chorl,"  or  nick,  that  they  may  not  crack  when 
they  presently  go  through  a  hardening  operation  that  awaits  them. 

From  the  grinder's  "  hull,"  with  its  whirling  stones  and  all  its  noisy  clatter  of  machinery, 
we  follow  our  blades  down  into  the  marking-room,  where  we  find  them  being  heated  to 
a  dull  sullen  colour,  or  what  the  worker  calls  "  worm-red ; "  then  they  are  one  by  one  placed 
under  a  heavy  steel  punch,  which,  driven  down  on  them  by  a  blow  of  the  hammer,  leaves 
the  name  of  the  maker  cleanly  cut  out  on  each  blade.  While  still  "worm-red"  the  little 
snick,  or  thumb-mark,  by  means  of  which  we  open  a  spring-knife,  is  rapidly  chiselled  on 
one  side,  and  these  bundles  of  marked  blades  are  again  returned  to  the  forger  who  first  had 
them  in  hand,  as  they  have  to  be  hardened  and  tempered — two  most  important  processes, 
upon  which  their  character  as  sharp  and  useful  pocket-knives  will  depend. 


THE    KNIFE-BLADES. 


101 


The  hardening  is  done  by  heating  the  blades  until  they  are  at  a  particularly  bright 
point  of  redness,  then  plunging  them  suddenly  straight  down  into  a  bath  of  chilled  water ; 
but  as  this  operation  renders  them  not  only  very  hard,  but  also  very  breakable,  they  have 
to  be  subjected  to  another  treatment.  The  blades,  having  been  cooled,  are  rubbed  in  fine 
sand,  to  clean  them  thoroughly,  then  laid  on  a  flat  steel  tray  an#  pt$;iiitp,,*a  kinct  of,  oven 
to  bake,  until  they  show  quite  a  deep  blue  tint,  the  worker. j  watching  closely,' 'arid  at  a 
certain  point  of  the  colouring  removing  some  of  them,  as  the '-degree; ,  p^  f  bju.ao^fe^.  61?  ^m- 
pering  differs  according  to  the  uses  the  knives  are  intended  to  serve. 

Again  the  blades  pass  to  the  grinder's  "hull/'  where  each  at  last  is  to  have  a  proper 
edge  bestowed  on  it.      Here  are  stones  of    several  kinds,  rough  grit-stones 
from  "Wickers!  ey,  near  Rotherham,  other  finer  grained  whitening-stones  from 
near  Sheffield,  and  fine  finishing  stones  from  abroad. 

Knives  of  all  kinds  are  being  ground  here.  The  larger  blades  for 
table-knives  are  ground  on  big  wet  stones, 
which  hang  over  a  great  vessel  full  of 
water,  so  that  the  very  extreme  surface 
of  the  revolving  stone  wheel  (which  is  of 
course  moved  by  steam-power)  just  touches 
the  water.  The  grinder  sits  near,  applying 
each  blade  to  the  wheel 
by  means  of  a  flat 
stick.  They  are  improved 
by  being  still  further 
ground,  or  "glazed."  The 
tang  being  fixed  to  a 
movable  handle,  our  blade 
is  applied  to  a  wooden 
wheel,  the  edge  of  which 
is  coated  with  emery-cake — that  composition  of  emery,  tallow,  and  wax  we  spoke  of.  After 
this  they  are  polished  and  finished  off  with  emery-flour  on  wheels  thickly  banded  with 
soft  buff  leather.  But  I  am  watching  the  blades  for  table-knives,  and  not  noticing  that 
our  boys'  useful  friends  do  not  progress  at  quite  so  rapid  a  rate. 

When  the  bundles  of  "spring-blades"  have  been  hardened  and  tempered,  and  had 
something  of  an  edge  put  on  them,  they  are  handed  over  to  the  fitters,  each  blade  being 
supplemented  with  the  rivets,  "bolsters,"  "pins,"  and  other  portions  necessary  for  fitting 
up  a  complete  knife;  and  as  every  different  knife  requires  a  different  kind  of  set,  they  are 
all  carefully  numbered.  Let  us  watch  the  putting  together  of  one  of  these  neat  and  useful 
pocket  treasures.  Here  is  a  fitter  just  setting  to  work  at  a  neat  four-bladed  pocket-knife. 
The  principal  parts  seem  to  consist  of  the  steel  spring,  or  back  of  the  knife,  varying 
according  to  the  number  of  blades,  and  the  outer  and  inner  scales.  The  spring,  having 
been  well  tempered,  is  filed  down  to  the  thickness  of  the  blade,  and  slightly  bent,  to  help 
the  motion  of  the  blade.  It  is  then  rubbed  on  a  surface  of  glue  and  emery,  and  the  interior 
is  further  polished  on  a  steel  burnisher,  that  there  may  be  no  unevenness  or  "catch  "  as  the  knife 


KNIFE-HANDLES. 


KNIFE,  FORK,  AND  SPOON  MAKERS  AT  WORK. 

1.  Forging,  Filing,  and  Tempering  Table-blades.  2.  Grinding  and  Polishing  Blades.  3.  Cutting  Ivory. 

4.  Boring  the  Handle  for  Shaft  of  Blade.  5.  Stamping  Spoons.  6.  Forging  Spoons  and  Forks. 

7.  Press  for  Cutting  Out  the  Spaces  between  the  Prongs  of  Silver  Forks. 


HANDLES    OP    POCKET-KNIVES.  103 

closes.  The  fitting  of  the  blades  into  the  springs  is  a  work  that  can  o.nly  be  well  done  by 
experienced  hands.  The  worker  we  are  watching  tries  them  all  several  times,  filing  and 
fitting  most  patiently  before  he  seems  at  all  satisfied  with  the  "  set "  of  each  blade,  which, 
it  appears,  must  stop  of  itself  at  exactly  a  right  angle  with  the  handle  when  half  open, 
and  must,  in  closing,  fall  quite  clear  of  any  part  of  the  little  partition  which  keeps  it  from 
the  neighbours,  of  which  it  sometimes  has  several  of  different  shapes  and  sizes. 

The  handle  is  composed  of  an  inner  and  outer  scale,  the  inner  ones,  made  of  brass  or 
German  metal,  forming  those  little  openings  into  which  the  blades  fit  so  nicely ;  the  outer 
one  is  the  neat  cover  of  creamy  ivory,  which,  I  should  think,  makes  its  contents  more  likely 
to  please  some  dainty  lady  than  any  one  else.  Now  follows  a  drilling  of  holes,  and  the  fitting 
of  pins  or  rivets  that  are  to  hold  the  various  parts  together.  A  small,  silvery-looking  plate 
is  fitted  into  an  opening  drilled  into  one  side  of  the  ivory  surface,  and  the  handle,  or  "  scales/' 
being  fastened  together,  the  blades  are  fitted,  as  we  have  noted,  with  the  greatest  precision. 
When  the  knife  is  so  far  completed,  the  blades  and  springs  are  returned  to  the  grinder 
for  another  polish ;  and  the  whole  is  finally  fitted  and  pinned  together,  the  corners  rounded 
and  filed,  and  smoothed,  first  on  a  sand-buff,  then  on  a  gloss-buff,  where  emery  and  oil 
polishes  them  to  any  extent;  last  of  all  they  are  sharpened  on  Welsh  hones.  Some 
of  these  "pocket-knives/'  of  which  Sheffield  furnishes  any  number  of  dozens  of  grosses, 
are  perfect  marvels  of  ingenuity,  and  show  how  carefully  the  "  fitter "  must  work.  Here 
a  two-bladed  wonder,  so  small  that  it  can  hang  among  the  "  charms "  on  a  chain,  lies 
side  by  side  with  another  horn-handled  brother  containing,  besides  the  ordinary  blades,  a 
corkscrew,  a  turnscrew,  a  railway-carriage  key,  a  bottle-opener,  a  button-hook,  a  file,  a  saw, 
and  other  useful  things,  all  safely  closing  up  in  their  several  compartments. 

We  are  satisfied  by  now  that  the  making  even  of  a  pocket-knife  is  worth  noting.  Its 
construction  employs,  as  we  have  seen,  forgers,  grinders,  buffers,  spring- makers,  scale  and 
pin  makers,  fitters,  and  steel-workers,  even  after  the  poor  Swedish  worker,  deep  in  the 
Danemora  or  other  mines,  has  provided  the  metal.  Very  likely  the  African  or  Indian  elephant 
or  rhinoceros  hunter  has  furnished  the  materials  for  its  handle,  at  peril  of  his  life  and  limb. 

It  is  well  worthy  noticing  what  a  variety  there  is  in  the  materials  used  for  making  the 
outer  scale  or  surface  of  pocket-knives,  from  stained  wood  to  blackest  ebony,  from  brass  to 
elaborately-chased  silver  and  gold,  from  commonest  bone  to  creamiest  ivory  and  shining 
mother-o'-pearl.  Of  horns  there  seem  to  be  any  number  sliced  up  for  this  purpose — elk, 
antelope,  buffalo,  walrus,  rhinoceros,  and  especially  the  rough  antlers  of  the  handsome 
Bavarian  stag,  which  are  particularly  suited  for  the  purpose.  Then,  too,  there  are  numerous 
cheap  composition  handles,  pressed  to  resemble  horn  or  tortoiseshell,  and  smart,  fancy 
German  articles,  which  might  well  be  warranted  to  look  shabby  in  a  very  short  time. 
Some  of  the  commonest  pocket-knives — at  least  their  scales  and  blades — are  now  made  by 
machinery,  but  I  would  scarcely  recommend  them,  unless  it  is  to  the  most  inveterate  young 
losers,  for  that  is  almost  all  they  are  good  for  as  far  as  my  own  personal  experience  goes. 

Having  said  and  seen  this  much  concerning  knives,  let  us  note  something  about  forks, 
those  now  indispensable  articles,  the  use  of  which  was  of  old  so  little  known  in  England, 
that  in  a  quaint  book  published  in  1611  the  travelled  atithor  writes  : — 

"I  observed  a  custom  in  all  those  Italian  cities  and  towns   through  which  I  passed 


104  THE    WONDEELAND    OP    WOBK. 

that  is  not  used  in  any  other  country  that  I  saw  in  my  travels.  Neither  doth  I  think 
that  any  other  nations  of  Christendom  doth  use  it  but  only  Italy.  The  Italians  and 
also  most  strangers  that  are  there  corrmorant  in  Italy  do  always  at  their  meals  use  a 
little  fork  when  they  cut  up  their  meat.  This  forme  of  feeding,  I  understand,  is  generally 
used  in  all  places  in  Italy,  their  forkes  being  for  the  most  part  made  of  yron  or  steele, 
and  some  of  silver;  but  those  are  used  only  by  gentlemen.  The  reason  of  this  their 
curiosity  is,  because  the  Italian  cannot  by  any  means  indure  to  have  his  dish  touched 
with  fingers,  seeing  all  men's  fingers  are  not  alike  cleane.  Hereupon  I  myself  thought 
good  to  imitate  the  Italian  fashion  by  this  forked  cutting  of  meate,  not  only  while  I  was 
in  Italy,  but  also  in  Germany,  and  oftentimes  in  England  since  I  came  home  ;  being  once 
quipped  for  that  frequent  using  of  my  forke  by  a  certaine  learned  gentleman,  a  familiar 
friend  of  mine,  who  in  his  merry  humour  doubted  not  at  table  to  call  me  Furcifer,  only 
for  using  a  forke  at  feeding,  but  for  no  other  cause." 

This  term  "  furcifer,"  let  me  add,  meant  a  slave,  punished  by  being  forced  to  carry  a  fork 
of  wood  upon  his  neck;  and  very  evidently  the  use  of  forks  was  at  first  much  ridiculed 
in  England,  as  an  effeminate  piece  of  affectation.  In  one  of  Beaumont  and  Fletcher's  plays, 
"  your  fork-carving  traveller  "  is  spoken  of  with  much  contempt.  Ben  Jonson  writes : — 

"Sledge.    Forks!    What  be  they? 

"  Meercraft.     The  laudable  use  of  forks, 
Brought  into  custom  here  as  they  are  in  Italy, 
To  the  sparing  o'  napkins." 

At  one  period  the  loaves  were  made  round;  they  were  cut  in  slices  which  were 
piled  by  the  side  of  the  carver,  or  Ecuyer  Tranchant  (cutting  squire).  He  had  a  pointed 
carving-knife,  and  a  skewer  of  bone,  silver,  or  gold,  which  he  stuck  into  the  joint. 
Having  cut  off  a  slice,  he  took  it  on  the  point  of  the  knife,  and  placed  it  on  a  slice 
of  bread,  which  was  served  to  the  guest.  This  ancient  custom  of  serving  meat  on 
the  point  of  the  carver  was  until  of  late  general  throughout  the  continent  ol  Europe. 
A  leg  or  haunch  of  mutton  had  always  a  piece  of  paper  wrapped  round  the  shank, 
which  the  carver  took  hold  of  with  the  left  hand  when  he  carved  the  joint,  and  such  is 
still  the  custom  in  Lower  Germany  and  Italy.  We,  who  imitate  very  often  without  knowing 
why,  have  imported  the  custom;  and  pointed  knives  are  still  general  on  the  Continent, 
it  being  so  difficult  to  leave  off  old  customs,  even  after  the  necessity  that  occasioned  them 
has  ceased.  Yet  the  fashion  came  but  slowly  into  England,  where  for  a  long  time  knives 
and  spoons  alone  were  provided  for  company,  and  only  very  particular  folk  thoaght  a 
fork  at  all  necessary,  as  they  were  considered  merely  articles  of  luxury,  used  by  the 
great  ones  of  the  land  for  eating  fruits  ap/1  preserves.  Such  dainty-mannered  guests 
usually  brought  their  especial  forks  with  them,  as  a  host  could  scarcely  be  expected  to 
keep  a  supply  of  such  really  fanciful  unnecessaries.  I  am  told  that  these  earliest  specimens 
of  iron,  steel,  or  silver,  sometimes  headed  with  gold  and  silver  handles  elaborately 
chased,  were  in  shape  more  like  split  spoons  than  anything  else,  and  at  the  best  had  only 
two  long,  blunt  prongs — in  that  resembling  the  form  of  some  of  their  humbler  modern 
kind  we  may  still  meet  with  in  out-of-the-way  country  places  in  company  with  peculiarly 


STEEL    FORKS. 


105 


substantial  knife-blades,  which,  broadened  out,  no  doubt   to  fit  the  mouths  of  the  diners, 
were  evidently  intended  to  be  used  shovel-fashion. 

But  while  we  are  thinking  of  these  old-fashioned  and  clumsy  two-pronged  forks, 
here  is  a  grimy  "  forger "  heating  the  bar  of  steel  with  which  he  proposes  to  make  one 
of  the  neat  modern  three-pronged  kind  we  are  now  so  familiar  with.  At  one  end  of  this 
bar  he,  by  means  of  his  anvil  and  hammer,  forms  the  tang,  or  end  that  is  to  go  into 
the  handle — this  is  sometimes  so  long  that  it  comes  right  through ;  then  the  shoulder,  or 
stop  piece,  and  the  shank,  or  middle  of  the  fork,  at  one  end  of  which  he  leaves  a  piece 
of  steel.  This  he  hammers  out  until  it  is  of  the  length  and  width  of  the  prong  end 


POLISHING    FORKS. 


of  a  fork.  Another  worker  then  takes  it,  and  having  made  it  very  hot,  lays  that  end 
in  the  lower  half  of  a  steel  die,  the  upper  part  of  which  is  allowed  to  come  down  on 
it  with  a  sudden  heavy  thud,  which  cuts  out  the  pieces  and  leaves  three  prongs  roughly 
formed  and  ready  for  the  grinder,  to  whose  noisy  "  mill "  it  is  now  carried,  then  to  the  shop 
to  be  hafted,  or  fitted  with  a  handle,  then  back  again  to  be  finally  ground,  and  "  buffed,"  and 
polished.  The  forks  are  then  tied  up  in  neat  packets  ready  for  the  cutler's  shelves. 

Though  steel  forks  yet  hold  their  own  in  the  kitchen  and  for  general  purposes,  they 
have  of  late  years  been  superseded  in  the  dining-room  by  elegantly-shaped  electro-plated 
rivals,  which,  although  composed  of  a  cheap  metal,  present  the  general  appearance  of  silver. 
Two  hundred  years  ago  plating  was  mentioned  as  giving  "the  use  of  silver  forks,  which 
is  by  some  of  our  gallants  taken  up  of  late,  without  offering  the  same  temptation  to  the 
light-fingered  gentry."  They  take  the  place  of  the  plating  mentioned  by  Horace  Walpole,  who, 
writing  in  1760,  says: — "I  passed  through  Sheffield,  which  is  one  of  the  foulest  towns  in 


THE    WONDERLAND    OF    WORK. 


England,  in  the  most  charming-  situation.  There  are  two-and-twenty  thousand  inhabitants 
making  knives  and  scissors.  They  remit  £11,000  a  week  to  London;  one  man  there  has 
discovered  the  art  of  plating  copper  with  silver."  And  a  very  valuable  discovery  surely. 
But  to  understand  the  "  how  and  why  "  of  the  dainty  modern  forks,  fish  and  fruit  knives, 
now  so  generally  used,  not  forgetting  the  cruets,  coffee  and  tea  pots,  salvers,  and  cups,  we 
must  travel  back  to  busy  Birmingham,  and  learn  something  of  the  process  of  electro-plating. 
We  are  fortunately  just  in  time,  for  in 'the  large  factory  we  happen  to  visit  they  are  melting 

and  mixing  three  metals  into  one,  of 
which  forks,  spoons,  fish  and  dessert 
knives,  and  other  useful  things  are  to  be 
cast ;  and  we  are  shown  the  great  melt- 
ing-pots full  of  a  grey  broth  composed 
of  copper,  zinc,  and  nickel,  which,  com- 
bined in  different  proportions,  form  the 
various  alloys  known  under  a  variety  of 
fine  names,  but  which,  when  plated,  we 
generally  sum  up  as  "  electro  "  or  German 
silver.  At  the  right  boiling-point  the 
"  pot "  containing  it  is  lifted  out  of  the 
furnace,  and  after  much  stirring  and 
skimming,  the  metal  is  cast  into  ingots, 
or  "  strips/'  weighing  about  eighteen 
pounds  each.  This  is  called  the  "strip 
casting/'  and  very  hot,  tiresome  task 
it  is,  judging  from  the  appearance  of 
the  several  workers.  The  grey  strips  are 
next  heated  in  annealing  furnaces,  and 
allowed  to  cool  before  being  passed 
through  iron  rollers  worked  by  steam, 
MODELLING,  CHASING,  AND  ENGRAVING.  then  again  annealed,  which  processes 

harden  and  improve  the  metal. 

The  great  plates  of  German  silver,  having  been  thus  cast  and  annealed  and  rolled  to  a 
given  thickness,  are  next  cut  into  pieces  and  "  punched "  into  "  blanks,"  or  flat  outlines  of 
the  forks  or  spoons  required.  This  is  done  by  means  of  fly-presses,  the  cutters  of  which  come 
down  with  a  heavy  pressure  upon  the  metal,  which  rests  on  a  die  screwed  to  the  press.  These 
odd-looking,  flattened-out  forks  and  spoons  are  again  annealed,  and  their  handles  stamped 
with  the  "  fiddle "  or  other  pattern  they  are  intended  to  bear ;  any  little  roughness  or 
defect  is  then  filed  off,  and  they  are  taken  to  the  "  bowler's  shop,"  where  there  are  several 
workers  "  bowling "  the  flat  spoons,  or  bending  and  rounding  the  prongs  of  the  forks.  A 
great  snapping  and  banging  seem  to  be  constantly  going  on  here,  for  the  stamping- 
machine  is  not  a  particularly  quiet  one.  It  has  a  kind  of  heavy  hammer,  or  drop,  on 
the  lower  surface  of  which  is  a  steel  die,  and  this  snaps  straight  down  on  another  strong 
•die  which  is  screwed  fast  on  an  anvil  resting  on  a  large  stone.  The  hammer,  which  hai 


1.  Polishing. 

2.  Batteries  and  Troughs. 


AT    THE    ELECTRO-PLATERS'. 


3.  Soldering  with  the  Blowpipe. 

4.  Turning  Oval  Dishes. 


108 


THE    WONDEELAND    OF    WORK. 


grooved  sides,  slides  easily  up  and  down  between  two  upright  posts,  or  "  poppets/'  by 
means  of  a  rope  passing  over  a  pulley.  The  rope  and  hammer  are  attended  to  by  one  young 
worker ;  another  rapidly  passes  the  blank  spoons  and  forks  under  the  hammer,  and  between 
the  two  dies  which  stamp  them  into  form.  Of  course,  when  the  "  bowl  "  or  bend  vanes,  as  it 
often  does,  according  to  the  size  or  shape  of  the  blank,  these  dies  have  to  be  changed. 

But  now  for  the  magic  electro-plating  bath,  which  is  to  transform  all  these  plain 
metal  objects  into  silver— or,  at  least,  something  very  like  it.  This  curious  apparatus  con- 
sists of  two  distinct  parts,  namely,  the  voltaic  battery,  from  which  the  electric  current  ifl 
obtained,  and  the  vat  in  which  the  silvering  or  gilding — for  either  can  be  done — takes  place. 

The  battery  consists  of  one  or  more  large  cells  (earthenware  jars),  according  to  the 
quantity  of  electricity  to  be  generated  and  the  intensity  of  the  current  required.  These 
oblong  plating  vats,  or  depositing  troughs,  contain  cyanide  of  potassium  diluted  in  many 

gallons  of  water;  across  each  vat  two  brass  rods  are 
laid  lengthways,  one  on  each  side;  on  these  are  copper- 
wire  hooks,  to  which  the  forks,  spoons,  or  other  articles 
to  be  plated  are  hung,  after  having  been  boiled  in  potass 
to  cleanse  them  from  all  dirt,  rust,  and  impurities,  and  also 
washed  in  nitrate  of  mercury ;  thin  plates  of  silver  are  also 
hung  at  regular  intervals  in  the  vats,  so  that  they  face 
the  articles  to  be  plated  on  both  sides.  A  connection  is 
formed  with  the  galvanic  battery,  and  the  silver,  released 
in  minute  particles  from  the  plates,  rapidly  attaches  itself 
to  the  surface  of  the  metal  objects,  the  thickness  of  the 
deposit  depending  upon  the  time  the  articles  are  allowed 
to  remain  in  the  bath;  an  ounce  and  a  half  of  silver  to 
the  square  foot  of  metal  is  considered  very  good  plating, 
though,  of  course,  more  may  be  deposited. 

When  the  process  of  electro-plating  is  concluded,  which  will  be  in  from  three  to  six 
hours,  according  to  the  quality  of  the  plating  required,  the  articles  are  taken  from  the 
depositing  vat,  boiled  in  clean  water,  and  dried  in  sawdust.  They  look  shabby  and  dull 
enough  as  yet,  but  I  am  informed  that  they  will  brighten  up  after  they  have  been  passed  under 
brushes  wetted  with  stale  beer,  and  undergone  a  thorough  rubbing  with  Calais  sand.  These 
brushes  are  not  composed  of  bristles,  but  of  fine  brass  wires,  that,  flying  round  in  a  lathe,  do 
most  effectual  work,  and  prepare  the  things  for  the  women  who  wait  to  burnish  each  one 
of  them  with  a  variety  of  blunt  tools  that  can  poke  about  in  all  the  holes  and  corners.  The 
whole  surface  is  greased  over  with  soap  to  avoid  scratches,  and  well  burnished  with  blood- 
stone, our  forks  and  spoons  and  other  especially  shining  objects  getting  extra  care,  and 
being  finally  touched  up  with  a  dab  of  rouge  to  make  them  more  silvery-looking  before 
they  are  packed  in  layers  of  soft  tissue-paper  or  washleather  ready  for  the  shops,  or  pta-ced 
side  by  side  in  pretty  velvet-lined  cases — the  making  of  which  supplies  home-work  to  very- 
many  industrious  men  and  women — and  in  them  the  pretty  plated  things  look  very  tempting. 

So  much,  then,  for  the  knives  and  forks  and  spoons,  and  for  the  great  changes  that 
have  taken  place  in  cutlery  since  the  days  when  observant  Chaucer  sang  of  the  "  Sheffield 


THE  VATS. 


ANCIENT    AND    MODERN    SHEFFIELD. 


109* 


thwytel/'  and  even  since  the  later  times  of  those  "  Hallamshire  whittels  "  mentioned  just 
now.  Hallamshire,  as  perhaps  you  know,  is  the  old  name  for  Sheffield  and  its  neighbour- 
hood, whose  busy  inhabitants  evidently  already  excelled  in  this  particular  industry,  which 
probably  owed  its  rise  to  the  great  natural  advantages  found  in  an  abundant  supply 
of  iron,  wood,  coal,  and  water-power,  all  ready  to  the  worker's  hand.  Then,  too,  when  the 
religious  disturbances  in  the  Netherlands  drove  away  its  skilled  men,  those  who  worked  in 
metal  at  home  naturally  settled  down  in  the  iron-working  districts,  where  their  descendants 
are  to  be  found  to  this  day.  No  doubt  their  steadiness,  taste,  and  energy  gave  a  fresh 
impetus  to  the  native  cutlers,  though  it  was  some  time  yet  before  the  idea  of  a  "  spring " 
pocket-knife  suggested  itself,  and  then  only  as  a  clumsy,  stiff  contrivance.  Surely  they 
would  have  considered  the  knife  lately  exhibited  by  one  of  the  great  Sheffield  firms,  and 
containing  no  less  than  1876  blades,  all  different,  yet  perfect,  as  something  magical  and  not 
to  be  meddled  with  by  Christian  fingers. 


THE   VILLAGE    SMITHY. 


MAN'S  TOOLS  A^sTD   THEIR  USES. 

A  MONO  all  the  tools  that  man  uses  there  is  none  of  more  interest  than  the  simple  hand 
hammer.  It  is  the  most  ancient  as  well  as  the  most  universal  tool  in  use,  and  is  found  in 
a  greater  variety  of  forms  than  any  other.  Indeed,  it  is  found  to  be  at  the  foundation  of 
all  the  mechanic  arts.  It  would  appear  that  nothing  could  be  simpler  or  easier  to  use  than  the 
hand  hammer,  but  you  must  know  that  some  of  the  work  done  by  it  requires  wonderful 
skilfulness,  and  that  we  can  find  none  in  our  whole  "Wonderland  that  requires  more.  The 
earliest  and  crudest  form,  in  which  we  find  the  hammer  is  the  stone  maul,  which  was  a 
water- worn  piece  of  stone  smallest  in  the  middle,  so  that  the  hand  could  grasp  it — this  being 
the  hammer  of  prehistoric  races,  who  had  not  learned  to  give  it  a  handle.  Later  on  we  find 
these  mauls  rudely  dressed  to  shape  so  that  the  hand  could  hold  them  more  easily  and 
firmly.  At  a  still  later  period,  handles  were  provided  by  tying  them  to  the  stone  heads 
with  withes  ;  and,  finally,  as  man's  wants  and  mechanical  knowledge  increased,  the  stone 
maul  was  given  an  eye  and  a  handle,  and  rudely,  as  you  see,  shaped  to  somewhat  resemble 
some  of  the  stonebreaker"  s  hammers  of  the  present  day.  But  it  is  with  the  hammers  of 
the  present  day  that  we  are  more  particularly  interested.  Some  of  them  will  be  quite 
familiar  to  you,  but  others  you  will  find  novel,  curious,  and  interesting.  Only  the  principal 
forms  of  hammers  used  in  some  of  the  common  trades  are  shown,  for  to  give  all  the  forms 
of  hammers  that  are  now  in  use  in  the  different  trades  would  fill  dozens  of  pages. 


MAN'S    TOOLS    AND    THEIR    USES. 


Ill 


END  ELEVATION. 


SIDE  ELEVATION. 


ANCIENT 


MACHINIST'S   HAMMEKS. 


THE   SLEDGE-HAMMEK. 


THE   BLACKSMITH  S   HAMMERS. 


THE   COPPEESMTTH  S   HAMMEKS. 


112 


THE    WONDERLAND    OF    WORK. 


THE  BOILER-MAKEE'S  HAMMEBS. 


THE  PLTJMBEB'S  HAMMEES. 


THE   STONEMASON  S    HAMMBES. 


THE   COOPEE'S   HAMMER. 


THE   MALLET. 


THE  COACH-TEIMMEE' s  HAMMEB. 


HIE        D 


THE   SLATES  S    HAMMEB. 


THE  FIEEMAN'S  TOMAHAWK-HAMMER 


MAN'S    TOOLS    AND    THEIR    USES. 


113 


A 


PLATE-STEAIGHTENEE'S  HAMMEKS. 


THE   EFFECTS    OF   A   HAMMER-BLOW. 


114 


THE    WONDERLAND    OF    WORK. 


STKAIGHTENING  THICK   PLATES. 


But  every  one  of  these  hammers,  you  must  kno\%  has  its  own  peculiarities,  and  for 
every  single  or  slight  alteration  of  form  there  is  a  good  substantial  reason  that  it  has  taken 

time,  thought,  and  experience  to  find  out. 
Sometimes  it  is  in  the  nature  or  kind  of 
the  blow  it  is  to  strike,  sometimes  in  the 
situation  of  the  work  it  is  to  do,  and  some- 
times it  is  to  save  unnecessary  work,  as 
in  the  case  of  the  odd-looking  hammer 
the  plate-straightener  uses,  which  is  shaped 
as  you  see  it  so  that  by  bending  his  arm 
in  different  positions,  and  turning  the 
hammer  over  and  over,  he  can  stand  in 
one  place  and  strike  blows  which  will  fall 
lengthwise,  at  any  angle  or  on  any  part  of 
the  plate's  face,  as  is  shown  by  the  dashes, 
which  are  meant  to  represent  blows. 

As  to  the  differences  in  the  methods 
of  using  these  hammers,  it  would  take  a 
large  book  to  explain  them,  but  a  few 
words  about  it  may  not  be  out  of  place.  First,  then,  you  must  know  that  the  most 
powerful  effects  may  be  produced  by  the  small  hammers  weighing  not  more  than  half  a 
pound,  and  with  light  blows,  because  on  cold  metal  there  are  two  quite  distinct  actions 
produced  by  hammer  blows.  The  first  is  to  strike  a  blow  that  will  penetrate  all  through 
the  metal  and  bend  it,  while  the  second 
is  to  give  such  light  blows  that  their 
effects  do  not  sink  deep  and  merely 
stretch  the  surface  of  the  metal.  In 
either  case,  the  effects  of  the  blow  de- 
pend to  a  great  extent  upon  the  direction 
in  which  the  hammer  travels  to  deliver 
it.  If  the  hammer  falls  straight  down, 
as  at  A,  the  metal  is  affected  equally  all 
around  the  spot  that  receives  the  blow. 
But  if  the  hammer  moves  sideways  while 
falling,  the  effects  are  produced  more 
on  one  side  than  the  other  of  the  spot 
struck.  Thus,  with  the  hammer  travel- 
ling as  you  see  indicated  by  the  top  ar- 
row B,  the  effects  would  be  as  shown  by 
the  star  at  B,  whatever  the  shape  of  the 
hammer  face  may  be.  When  light  blows 
are  given  to  stretch  the  metal  on  one  face  only,  it  is  one  side  of  the  plate  or  piece 
of  metal  being  stretched  more  than  the  other  that  alters  its  straightness. 


STEAIGHTENING  THIN  PLATES. 


STRAIGHTENING    SAWS. 


115 


The  machinist  uses  his  hammer  to  drive  and  also  to  stretch  the  work,  employing  for 
the  stretching  action  the  middle  hammer,  which  he  calls  the  "  ball  pene."  The  sledge  is 
used  for  driving  purposes  in  a  great  many  trades.  The  blacksmith,  as  you  know,  uses  his 
hammers  to  stretch  metal  while  it  is  hot,  while  the  coppersmith's  hammers  are  used  to 
drive  as  well  as  to  stretch  the  metal  and  form  it  into  shape. 

There  is  far  more  skill  required  to  use  the  hammer  for  stretching  than  for  driving  pur- 
poses, but  I  must  tell  you  that  a  great  part  of  the 
skilfulness  lies  in   knowing   just  where  to  strike 
the  blow,  for  a  blow  struck  in  the  wrong  place 
makes  the  work  worse  instead  of  better. 

In  straightening  thick  iron  plates,  such  as 
the  safe  manufacturers  use  to  make  into  bank 
safes,  the  straightener  holds  up  the  plate  on  the 
anvil  before  him  and  sights  the  sides  of  the  plate  ; 
the  shadows  he  finds  on  it  telling  him  what  parts 
of  the  plate  are  high  or  low ;  some  of  these 
shadows  being  shown  at  A.  But  it  requires  a 
great  deal  of  experience  to  even  be  able  to  detect 
these  shadows  on  the  rough  plates  the  safemaker 
uses,  and  a  good  deal  more  to  decipher 
their  meaning. 

The  straightener  on  thin  plates 
rests  one  end  of  the  plate  on  an  anvil, 
while  he  lifts  the  other  end  and  presses 
the  plate  down  a  few  times,  so  as  to 
be  able  to  find  out  where  it  moves  the  most,  which  he 
calls  a  "loose  place."  He  straightens  the  plate  by 
stretching  the  metal  all  round  about  this  loose  place,  first 
on  one  side  and  then  on*  the  other,  turning  the  plate 
around  and  around,  and  over  and  over,  while  the  blows 
fall  thick  and  fast  without  a  moment's  hesitation.  To 
straighten  a  woodworker's  hand-saw  is  considered  a  good 
example  of  difficult  work.  The  straightener  holds  the 
saw  in  both  hands  and  bends  it  up  and  down,  finding, 
perhaps,  the  dish-shaped  "loose  place"  you  see.  In  this 
case  he  hammers  the  saw  with  a  round-faced  hammer 
at  A  and  at  B,  to  stretch  the  blade  and  take  out  the 
loose  place.  But,  suppose  it  was  a  circular  saw,  and  that  it  was  bent 
then  he  would  hammer  it  well  around  the  outside  to  stretch  it,  but  would  not  let 
any  blows  fall  around  the  eye,  and  this  would  cause  the  saw  to  open  out  flat  instead 
of  being  dished. 

To  give  you  an  idea  of  the  wonderful  effects  of  light  stretching  blows,  suppose  we 
had  a  shaft  several  inches  thick,  and  that  it  was  bent  as  you  see,  the  two  arms  being  too 


STRAIGHTENING   SAWS. 


as 


you 


see, 


116 


THE    WONDERLAND    OF    WORK. 


wide  apart,  then  we  may  take  a  hammer  weighing  a  quarter  of  pound  and  hammer  away  at 
B,  which  would  straighten  the  shaft  and  close  the  arms  together  at  the  same  time.  As  this 

stretching  process  is  always  done  with  the  "pene,"  or  small- 
est face  of  the  hammer,  it  is  called  "  pening. " 

You  are  all  familiar  witli  the  carpenter's  boxwood 
measuring-rule,  or  his  "  two  -foot  rule,"  as  he  calls  it;  and 
a  very  useful  tool  it  is,  filling  all  his  needs  for  common 
plain  work.  In  olden  times  it  was  considered  that  it  was 
also  sufficiently  accurate  for  the  machinist  and  the  instru- 
ment-maker, but  we  have  found  that  it  is  of  but  little  use 
for  those  purposes,  as  you  will  soon  see.  It  is  divided 
into  inches,  and  these  inches  into  eighths,  sixteenths,  and 
thirty-second  parts  of  an  inch ;  and  so  for  any  measurement 
less  than  the  one  thirty-second  part  of  an  inch,  you  have 

to  guess  what  the  exact  measurement  is.  Now,  in  making  fine  machine-work,  it  is 
found  that  the  fit  of  the  pieces  will  not  be  a  good  one  unless  the  sizes  are  correct 
to  the  one  five-thousandth  part  of  an  inch.  Of  course  you  will  think  that  even  the 
one  thousandth  part  of  an  inch  is  a  very  small  affair,  and  could  hardly  be  noticed,  but  if 
you  had  a  pocket-knife  that  was  one  one-thousandth  part  of  an  inch  loose  in  the  blade, 
you  would  say  that  it  had  a  very  bad  "headache,"  as  boys  call  it. 

To  convince  you  of  this,  here  is  an  experiment  that  was  made,  the  picture  being 
the  full  size.  A  piece  of  iron  was  bored  with  a  hole  one  half  an  inch  in  diameter,  and  an 
iron  plug  was  made  that  was  one  one-thousandth  part  of  an  inch  smaller ;  and  when  the 
plug  was  put  into  the  hole,  it  would  shake  backward  and  forward  from  A  to  B,  and  from 
B  to  A.  This  was  done  to  make  a  workman  see  what  a  very  bad  fit — an  error  in  size  or 
thickness — a  piece  would  be  if  it  was  a  thousandth  too  small. 


STEAIGHTENING   A   SHAFT. 


ONE-THOUSANDTH    OF    AN   INCH. 


Now  the  closeness  with  which  work  must  fit  depends  upon  the  kind  of  work,  and  you 
must  know  that  you  could  tell  the  difference  between  the  fit  of  the  plugs  that  fitted  to  the 
same  hole,  even  if  one  was  only  the  five  thousandth  part  of  an  inch  larger  than  the  other, 
providing  that  the  hole  and  the  plugs  were  quite  round  and  straight,  and  were  made  of  iron. 
And  so  it  comes  about  that  engineers  make  machines  that  will  measure  as  fine  and  close  as 
they  possibly  can.  Sir  Joseph  Whitworth  has  made  a  machine  that  will  detect  an  error  of 
the  one  millionth  part  of  an  inch.  It  is  called  the  "  Millionth  Measuring  Machine, "  and 
the  way  it  is  used  is  this  : 


HOW    WORK    IS    MEASURED. 


117 


A  piece  of  work,  D,  is  placed  between  two  feelers,  B  c,  that  may  be  moved  up  to  it  by 
wheels   and   screws,  and   between  c  and  the   end  of  the  work   is  placed  a  flat  piece  of 
iron  E,  and  when  this  piece  is  held 
just  so  that  it  will  move  easily  with 
the   finger  and   not   fall  down,  the 


E 


tn 

tf®4fl? 

CrT 

ffi         i 

TTTT-.V.:,  v~'!.  •'.; 
O  V  w  '  J 

GENERAL  VIEW. 


THE    MILLIONTH    MEASUKING-MACHINE. 


machine  is  set  to  the  standard  meas- 
uring-piece D.  This  being  done,  the 
workman  notes  in  just  what  posi- 
tion the  wheel  G  stands  in — this 
being  the  wheel  that  he  moves  to 
make  o  touch  the  gravity-piece  E. 
He  then  takes  out  the  standard  - 
piece  D,  and  puts  in  the  piece  of 
work  he  wants  to  make,  of  exactly 
the  same  length  as  D,  and  moves 
the  wheel  G  to  the  same  place  as 
before,  and  if  the  gravity-piece  E 
falls  down,  the  piece  of  work  is  too 
short  ;  while  if  piece  E  is  so  tight 
that  it  will  not  move  with  the  slight- 
est touch,  the  work  is  longer  than 
the  test-piece  D.  It  is  found  that 

a  difference  in  length  of  the  one  millionth  part  of  an  inch  may  easily  be  detected  in  this 
way,  and  that  is  why  the  machine  gets  its  name  of  the  "millionth  measuring-machine." 

It  is  a  very  common  thing  for  workmen  to  measure  their  work  to  a  thousandth  part  of 
an  inch,  which  is  done  with  several  kinds  of  tools.  First,  there  is  the  Yernier  calliper, 
so  called  from  Monsieur  Vernier,  the  Frenchman,  who  invented  it,  and  as  this  is  a  very 
important  and  ingenious  tool,  we  may  as  well  try  to  make  you  understand  the  principle  it 

works  on.  It  has,  as  you 
see,  a  bar,  with  a  jaw  on  one 
end  of  it,  and  on  this  bar 
is  a  second  or  sliding  jaw, 
which  may  be  fixed  on  the 
bar  by  the  "set-screws" 
you  see,  which  secure  the 
two  straps  to  the  bar.  The 
sliding  jaw  has  a  small  screw 
on  it,  and  on  this  screw  is  a 
>  "nut,"  so  that  revolving  the 

nut  moves  the  sliding  jaw,  and  all  that  is  necessary  is  some  means  of  finding  out 
when  this  jaw  has  been  moved  the  one  thousandth  part  of  an  inch,  which  is  done  in 
this  way  :  Suppose  we  take  a  strip  of  steel  A,  and  divide  it  equally  by  lines  as  marked 
from  1  to  10,  resting  its  end  on  a  plate  p,  and  then  take  another  piece  and  space  it  off 


iiiliiiilmilmiliiuliiiiliimmiimlimlmiimiii'ii  n 


TEENIEE    CALLIPER. 


118 


THE    WONDERLAND    OF    WORK. 


equally  by  lines  as  from  I  to  10,  but  making  the  10  divisions  on  B  exactly  equal  in  length 
to  the  9  of  those  on  A.  Then  if  we  took  one  of  the  divisions  on  B  and  cut  it  up  into  10 
parts  and  put  one  of  the  parts  on  line  1  of  B,  another  on  line  2  of  B,  another  on  line  3  of  B 
and  so  on,  we  should  make  the  10  divisions  on  B  equal  to  10  on  A  ;  and  so  it  is  plain  that 
if  the  divisions  on  A  are  10  to  an  inch,  then  the  two  lines  marked  1  will  be  the  one 


PLATE 


THE   PRINCIPLE    OF   THE   YERNTEB. 


STANDARD   GAT7GES. 


hundredth  part  of  an  inch  apart ;  those  marked  2  will  be  two  one-hundredths  of  an  inch 
apart ;  those  marked  3  will  be  three  one-hundredths  of  an  inch  apart,  and  so  on.  Again,  if 
A  had  divisions  that  were  spaced  50  to  an  inch,  and  B  had  20  divisions  that  just  equalled 
in  their  total  length  19  of  the  divisions  on  A,  then  lines  1  would  be  the  one  thousandth 
of  an  inch  apart,  lines  2  two  one-thousandths  of  an  inch  apart,  and  so  on.  Now  the  sliding 
jaw  on  the  Vernier  corresponds  to  our  piece  of  steel  B,  and  the  bar  corresponds  to  A,  so  you 

see  it  is  an  easy  matter  to  measure 
the  one  thousandth  of  an  inch. 
This  tool,  you  can  easily  see,  is 
not  suitable  to  measure  or  test 
round  work  with,  and  so  what  are 
called  plug  and  collar  gauges  are 
used,  the  size  of  the  hole  and  of 
the  plug  being  made  correct,  and 
the  workman  testing  his  work  by 
trying  it  in  the  hole,  or  if  he 

wants  to  test  a  hole,  he  tries  it  with  the  plug  gauge.  So  these  gauges  only  tell  him 
whether  the  work  is  the  right  size  or  not,  and  do  not  tell  him  how  much  it  is  wrong. 

Here  we  have  a  delicate  and  handy  instrument  called  the  "Micrometer  Calliper,"  that 
will  not  only  measure  to  less  than  the  thousandth  part  of  an  inch,  but  will  also  tell  us  the 
exact  amount  of  error  in  the  work,  and  its  principle  is  quite  simple.  A  piece  of  steel 
shaped  like  the  letter  U  has  at  one  end  a  stop  or  plug,  B,  for  the  work  to  rest  against,  while 


MICROMETER   CALLIPER. 


THE    USE    OF    CALLIPERS. 


119 


through  its  other  end  passes  a  screw  c.  The  work  goes  between  B  and  the  end  of  the  screw 
c.  At  D  is  a  tubular  piece  or  "  sleeve  "  as  the  machinist  calls  it,  fitting  over  the  stem  of 
the  screw,  and  the  tapered  end  of  this  sleeve  is  divided  off  in  equal  line  divisions — say 
twenty-live  in  number.  Now,  since  one  whole  turn  of  the  screw  causes  it  to  move  end- 


SHEET    :,IETAJL    MEASURING-MACHINE. 


OUTSIDE   CALLIPERS. 


INSIDE   CALLIPERS. 


ways  the  one  fortieth  part  of  an  inch,  therefore  moving  it  by  the  sleeve  D  one  twenty-fifth 
part  of  a  revolution  will  quite  clearly  move  the  screw  endways  the  twenty-fifth  part  of  a 
fortieth,  which  is  the  one  thousandth  part  of  an  inch,  and  the  line  of  division  that  you  see 
standing  horizontal  on  the  end  of  D  will  come  exactly  opposite  to  the  horizontal  line  marked 
off  on  the  screw  stem.  But  if  we  were 
to  move  the  screw  until  it  touched 
the  work  and  gripped  it  between  the 
end  of  the  screw  c  and  the  foot  or 
plug  B,  and  the  horizontal  line  marked 
o  came  half  way  between  the  lines  on 
the  end  or  bevelled  edge  of  D,  the 
measurement  would  be  to  the  one  half 
of  one  thousandth.  The  vertical  lines 
you  see  at  A  are  simply  divisions  of 
an  inch,  the  same  as  on  a  measuring- 
rule.  And  I  may  tell  you  that  for 
fine  measuring  these  rules  are  made 
of  steel,  and  marked  off  as  fine  as  one 
hundred  lines  in  an  inch,  and  yet  you 
can  see  them  quite  distinctly  and  also 

the  spaces  between  them.  For  measuring  sheet  metals  a  different  kind  of  measuring 
instrument  is  used,  a  plate  being  employed  instead  of  the  sleeve  D  ;  but  the  principle  on 
which  it  is  made  and  used  is  very  much  the  same  as  the  micrometer  calliper.  For  trying 
whether  one  piece  will  fit  another,  without  caring  to  know  just  how  many  inches,  or 


SETTING    OUTSIDE   CALLIPERS. 


120 


THE    WONDERLAND    OF    WORK. 


HOLDING    CALLIPERS    FOE    MEASUBING    SMALL    WOBK. 


parts  of  an  inch,  either  of  them  measure,  the  common  callipers  are  used.     Here  you  see 
the  form  of  callipers  sold  in  the  stores,  and  called  "  spring  callipers."     But  many  workmen 

prefer  the  old  style 
of  "inside"  and 
"  outside  "  callipers  ; 
the  inside  ones  being 
for  taking  the  diam- 
eters of  holes,  re- 
cesses, or  bores,  and 
the  outside  ones  for 
ping-shaped  work. 
The  two  legs  have  a 
joint  so  that  they 
can  be  set  to  just 
touch  the  work,  the 
outside  ones  being 
tried  on  the  work,  as 
you  see,  and  the  in- 
side ones  are  set  in 
a  similar  manner. 
When  both  pairs  of 
callipers  are  thus  set, 
they  are  tried  to- 
gether to  see  if 
their  points  will  just 
touch,  and  if  they 
do  it  is  known  that 
one  piece  will  go 
into  the  other.  For 
measuring  small 
work  the  callipers 
are  held  differently 
from  the  way  for 
large  work,  as  you 
see.  There  are 
many  other  measur- 
ing tools  and  instru- 
ments used  in  the 
requirements  of  the 
workshop,  but  these 
are  sufficient  to  give 
you  an  idea  of  how  closely  we  measure,  and  the  tools  we  do  it  with. 

There  are  also  many  other  interesting  tools  that  man  uses  to  test  his  work  with,  and 


THE    SURFACE    PLATE. 


121 


among  these  is  the  "  surface  plate,"  which  is  used  to  test  if  a  surface  is  perfectly  flat  or  not. 

The  plate  itself  is  made  truly  flat  by  a  peculiar  hand  process  which  we  need  not  explain  here, 

and  is  laid  upon  the  work  to  test  it.     Perhaps  you  will  be  able  to  form  some  idea  of  how 

wonderfully  true  or  flat  these  plates  are 

made,  when  you  are  told  that  they  may 

be  made  to  fit  so  closely  together  as  to 

exclude    the    atmosphere    from    between 

their   faces   when   two  of   them    are   put 

together   by  sliding  one   over  the  other, 

and,    as   a    consequence,    the    atmosphere 

presses  them  together   so  hard  that  it  is 

very  difficult  to    slide  the  top  one  fully 

over  the  bottom  one. 

But  there  is  another  thing  about 
these  plates  that  is  still  more  curious  and 
surprising,  and  that  teaches  us  a  most 
useful  lesson,  which  is  that  the  most 
solid  and  stiff  piece  of  iron  bends  very 
easily.  It  bends  very  little,  so  little, 
indeed,  that  you  cannot  see  it,  although 

you  can  find  out  that  it  does  bend,  which  is  proved  in  this  way.  Here  you  see  two  surface 
plates  put  together,  and  with  handles  in  their  end's.  Now,  if  these  plates  were  a  foot 
square,  and  were  a  close  enough  fit,  which  they  may  easily  be  made,  a  strong  man  could 


THE  SURFACE  PLATE. 


THE  SURFACE  PLATE. 


not  slide  one  on  the  top  of  the  other,  on  account  of  the  air  resting  on  the  top  plate  and 
pressing  the  plates  together.  And  I  doubt  if  two  men  could  do  it,  for  it  would  take  about 
four  hundred  and  fifty  pounds,  which  is  not  so  much  to  lift  as  it  is  to  pull  or  push.  But 


122 


THE    WONDERLAND    OF    WORK. 


ANGLE   SURFACE    PLATES. 


if,  instead  of  the  man  trying  to  get  the  plates  apart  by  pushing  one  off  the  other,  he 
tries  to  pull  them  apart,  he  can  do  so  quite  easily,  because  the  iron  bends,  even  though  it  is 
an  inch  thick,  and  it  will  unlap  and  let  the  air  in  between  the  surfaces.  You  will  see  what 
I  mean  by  unlapping  if  you  take  two  sheets  of  wet  writing-paper  and  put  them  together, 
and  if  you  then  take  hold  of  two  corners  and  pull  them  apart  they  will  bend  and  unlap  just 

as  iron  plates  do. 

If,  the  next  time  you  see  a  piece 
of  machinery,  you  take  particular  notice, 
you  will  discover  that  both  in  its  framing 
and  in  its  moving  mechanism  the  hori- 
zontal and  vertical  line  is  adhered  to  as 
far  as  possible.  That  is  to  say,  the 
length  of  its  framing  and  the  points 
where  it  is  bolted  together,  and  also  the 
motion  of  the  various  parts,  are  nearly 
all  in  either  a  horizontal  or  a  vertical 
plane  or  direction,  so  that  they  are  at  a 
right  angle  one  to  the  other  ;  and  it  is, 
therefore,  essential  to  provide  some  special  tools  to  test  surfaces  for  being  at  a  right 
angle,  so  we  have  the  angle  surface  plates  as  well  as  the  flat  one,  which  are  more  accurate 
than  the  ordinary  try-square. 

Now  we  corne  to  our  common  and  most  useful  friend,  the  grindstone  for  tool-sharp- 
ening. We  find  it  everywhere,  even  in  the  farmer's  barnyard.  But  there  are  many 
things  about  even  so  common  a  thing 
as  a  grindstone  that  you  are  not  likely 
to  have  learned.  Such,  for  instance, 
as  that  the  softer  the  stone  is  the 
faster  it  will  cut,  and  that  letting  one 
side  of  the  stone  rest  in  the  trough 
when  there  is  water  in  it  will  water- 
soak  the  stone,  soften  it  on  that  side, 
and  cause  it  to  wear  away  faster  and 
BO  get  the  stone  out  of  round. 

You  must  know  that  a  grind- 
stone is  composed  of  grains  of  sand 
or  stone,  and  that  it  is  the  angles  or 
corners  of  these  grains  that  make  it 
cut,  and  you  will  see  plainly  than  in 
a  hard  and  closely  packed  stone  these 

grains  will  $ing  to  the  body  of  the  stone  even  after  the  sharp  corners  are  worn  off.  But 
if  the.  stone  is  soft,  the  grains  rub  off  more  easily,  and  fresh  grains  with  their  unworn 
angles  are  constantly  coming  into  use.  Now,  water  softens  the  stone  for  one  thing  and 
washes  away  the  inetal  cuttings  for  another,  so  that  on  the  wet  side  there  is  every 


TOOL   GRINDING. 


TOOL-GRINDING. 


123 


TOOL-GKINDING. 


inducement  for  the  stone  both  to  cut  and  wear   away.     But  on  the  dry  side  it  will  cut 

while  the  surface  is  clean,  but  it  will  soon  get  coated  with  metal,  and  then  it  will  neither 

•cut  nor  wear  away.     So  you  see  how  important  it 

is  to  wet  the  stone  all  over  when  you  are  using  it. 
Carpenters  generally  stand  on  one  side  of  the 

stone  and  machinists  on  the  other,  and  you  may 

as  well  know  why  they  do  so,  for  mechanics  do 

not  do  anything  without  a  reason. 

Suppose  that  we  have  a  stone  running  around 

in  the  direction  of  the  arrow  B,  and  the  carpenter 

will  hold  his  chisel  or  plane  blade  as  at  c,  because 

he    could,    on    an    ordinary    grindstone,    hold    it 

steadier  than  he  could  if  he  held  it  at  G.     This  is 

always   the  case,  even  in  a  true  or  even-running 

etone,  but  by  grinding  in  position  c,  the  tool  has 

a  feather  edge  produced  on  it,  this  being  a  ragged 

edge  shown  extending  from  D  to  E.     If  he  holds 

the  chisel  at  G  no  feather  edge  will  be  made  ;  so 

that  the  carpenter  can  grind  his  tools  better  when 

the  stone  runs  towards  him,  providing  that  it  runs 

true,  so  that  he  can  hold  the  tool  steady.     But  as  this  not  often  the  case,  he  is  generally 

obliged  to  stand  on  the  other  side  of  the  stone.     The  way  the  carpenter  holds  a  tool, 

such  as  a  •  plane  blade,  is  at 
an  angle,  as  you  see,  and  as 
the  face  of  the  stone  wears 
out  of  straight  he  moves  the 
blade  very  slowly  across  the 
stone,  holding  it  all  the  while 
as  steadily  as  he  possibly  can, 
so  as  to  grind  a  good  even  and 
flat  face  upon  it.  The  ma- 
chinist requires  an  iron  rest 
to  support  his  hands  as  he 
firmly  presses  the  tool  to  the 
grindstone. 

The  grindstone,  which  has 
been  sole  monarch  of  our  tool- 
sharpening  tools,  has  now, 
however,  a  very  formidable 
rival  in  the  emery-wheel,  which 
is  made  by  pressing  grain 

emery,  mixed  with  some  cementing  material,  into  a  mould  under  a  tremendous  pressure. 

The  emery-wheel  can  be  run  much  faster  than  the  grindstone,  and  especially  in  small  and  thin 


GBESTDING   tRON-CUTTING   TOOLS. 


124  THE    WONDERLAND    OF    WORK. 

wheels.  Another  thing  is,  that  it  can  be  made  to  any  required  shape  by  simply  fixing  the 
mould  it  is  pressed  in  to  suit  the  shape  wanted.  Harness  and  cutlery  makers,  as  well  as 
stove-makers  and  machinists,  find  the  emery-wheel  a  splendid  grinding  tool. 

In  every  trade  where  emery-wheels  are  used,  you  will  find  a  different  kind  of  emery- 
wheel  grinding  machine.  Here,  for  example,  you  see  an  emery  grinding  lathe,  an  emery- 
wheel  being  used  instead  of  a  steel  cutting-tool. 


AN   EMERY-WHEEL   GBINDING-LATHE. 


The  object  is,  in  this  case,  to  cut  metal  too  hard  for  steel  tools  to  cut,  or  else  to  make 
more  true  and  smooth  work  than  cutting-tools  will.  You  see  that  there  are  two  belts  or 
straps — one  driving  the  lathe  and  the  other  the  little  emery-wheel,  which  runs  two  or  three 
thousand  revolutions  in  a  minute,  while  the  work  runs  slowly,  at  say  not  more  than  two 
hundred. 


THE    EMERY    GRINDER. 


125 


THE   EMERY   GRINDEB  FOB   FLAT   SURFACES. 


This  machine  can  be  used  for  round  or  cylindrical  work  only.     For  flat  work  we  have 

quite  a  different  shaped  machine,  which  is,  you  will  notice,  very  much  like  an  iron-planing 

machine,  with  an  emery-wheel  in  place  of  the 

cutting-tool.      The   emery-wheels   will    not,    in 

any  of   these   machines,   cut  ordinary  metal   as 

quickly  as  a  steel  cutting-tool,  but  this  is  more 

than   made   up  by  the  extra  smoothness.     The 

work    is    fastened    on   the   table,    which   glides 

back  and  forth  under  the  wheel,  but  you  must 

know  that  the  wheel  only  cuts  while  the  table 

is   moving   in    one    direction,   which  is   that  in 

which  the  wheel  acts  to  push  the  work  away 

and  not  pull  it  along,  for  in  that  case  the  grind- 
ing would  not  be  done  steadily  and  smoothly. 
For  such  grinding   as   is  done   by  holding 

the  work   in   the   hands,    the   machine   usually 

has  two  emery-wheels,  and  rests  such  as  K  and  s 

are  used  to  support  the  work,     p  is  the  pulley 

that  drives  the  wheels,  and  you  may  judge  how 

fast  these  wheels  revolve  when  I  tell  you  that  if 

they  were  let  run  along  the  ground  they  would 

travel  very  nearly  a  mile  in  a  minute.     Those  wheels  which  are  made  of  the  largest  grained 

or  coarsest  emery  cut  the  quickest,  and,  of  course,  the  roughest.     But  these  wheels  may 

be  soft  or  hard,  and,  just  as  you  were  told  about  the  grindstone,  a  soft  wheel  cuts  faster 

than  a  hard  one,  but  it  wears 
out  sooner.  The  main  trouble 
in  using  a  hard  emery-wheel  is, 
that  it  what  is  called  "gums" 
or  glazes,  which  means  that  the 
angles  of  the  emery  wear  smooth 
and  the  particles  of  metal  stick 
on  the  wheel  and  clog  it  up, 
which  prevents  it  from  cutting. 
When  this  occurs  the  wheels 
must  be  either  cleaned  or  the 
glaze  cut  off  witli  a  diamond 
tool.  Some  kinds  of  emery- 
wheels  can  be  used  as  large  as, 
and  in  place  of,  the  grindstone, 
and  I  have  seen  them  swung  in 
the  air  on  frames  so  that  they 

could  be  moved  over  the  uppermost   surface   of  iron  plates,   such   as  are  used  to  make 

bankers'   safes,   grinding  off  the  scale  and  smoothing  the  plate  so  that  it  will  look  well 


K 


126 


THE    WONDERLAND    OF    WORK. 


when  it  is  painted.  A  similar  frame  is  used  in  some  foundries  to  clean  the  rough 
places  off  castings,  th  whole  frame  being  suspended  at  A,  and  balanced  by  a  weight  w. 
There  are  two  sections  or  links  in  the  frame,  one  standing  vertically  and  the  other 
horizontally,  and  there  are  two  driving  belts,  one  at  F  and  another  at  G.  There  are 
at  c  and  at  H  a  series  of  pivoted  points  that  permit  the  emery-wheel  to  be  swung  side- 
ways or  moved  in  any  direction,  so  that  the  man  takes  hold  of  two  handles  (one  on  each  side 
of  the  wheel),  and  moves  the  wheel  around  and  about  the  casting,  grinding  off  the  rough 
and  sandy  surface.  It  is  really  curious  to  see  such  a  wheel  at  work,  for  it  may  be  so  turned 
about  and  so  held  that  the  driving  belt  is  twisted,  and  you  would  not,  unless  you  saw  it, 
think  that  it  could  drive  the  wheel  at  all,  but  the  thick  and  fast  flying  sparks  would  soon 
undeceive  you,  and  show  that  the  wheel  was  hard  at  work  gnawing  away  at  the  iron. 


EMERY-WHEEu   S"WING-FKAME. 


A  POLISHING  WHEEL. 


AN   EMEKY   BELT  MACHINE. 


The  most  refined  uses  of  the  emery-wheel  are  grinding  the  cutters  for  milling-machines, 
in  grinding  flat  surfaces,  and  in  its  application  to  the  grinding-lathe  ;  and  next  to  these  comes 


KNIFE-GRINDING. 


127 


its  use  for  grinding  tools  and  cutters.     Here  we  have  an  emery-wheel  grinding  machine 

for  sharpening  the  knives  of  wood-planing  machines.     The  knife  is  held  in  the  frame  in 

front  of    the  wheel,  and 

this   frame    travels   back 

and  forth  past  the  wheel 

so  as  to  bring  all  parts  of 

the  knife-edge  in  contact 

with     the     wheel     face, 

which  cuts  continuously. 

The    hand   wheel    is    to 

move   the  knife  towards 

the  emery-wheel  and  thus 

put  on  the  cut.     As  the 

frame    that    carries    the 

knife  is  moved  back  and 

forth  in   a   straight  line, 

the  edge  of  the  knife  is 

sure  to  be  ground  straight. 

If  you  put  on  your 
thinking-cap  for  a  minute 
or  two,  you  will  see  that 
grinding  and  polishing 
are  very  similar  opera- 
tions ;  the  finest  kind  of 
grinding  constituting  a 
polishing  process  so  far  as 
metal  work  is  concerned. 

And  so  it  comes  about  that  the  hrst  stages  of  polishing  are  done  with  fine  emery,  and  the 
final  stages  with  other  and  finer  polishing  powders.  But,  for  polishing  purposes,  a  wooden 
wheel  covered  with  leather  on  which  emery  is  glued  is  used.  And  the  more  the  emery  gets 
used  the  finer  it  will  polish.  Some  of  these  wheels  are  covered  with  lead,  while  all  of  them  run 
at  a  speed  of  about  a  mile  in  a  minute.  Other  kinds  of  polishing  wheels  are  made  of  round 
pieces  of  rags  put  side  by  side  until  they  make  a  wheel  about  an  inch  thick.  You  would 
think  that  a  rag-whee:  would  be  a  very  limp  affair,  especially  as  the  layers  are  all  loose, 
except  at  the  centre,  where  they  \are  bound  together,  but  the  high  speed  at  which  they 
revolve  causes  them  to  stand  out  straight  like  a  wooden  wheel,  and  they  actually  require 
considerable  pushing  to  bend  them  sideways.  A  rag-wheel  not  only  polishes  very  beautifully, 
but  it  will  go  into  all  the  little  crooks  and  corners  where  a  solid  wheel  could  not  get. 

The  brass  finisher  uses  emery  belts  as  well  as  wheels,  the  outside  of  the  belt  being 
coated  with  glue  and  emery.  The  belt  is  driven  at  a  high  speed  over  pulley,  as  you  see. 
He  holds  the  work  against  the  belt  and  turns  it  about  so  as  to  dress  all  the  surface.  But 
the  final  polishing  he  does  with  buff-wheels,  rag-wheels,  etc.,  which  polish  smoother  than 
the  emery  belt. 


PLANING-MACHINE    KOTFE-GRINDEE. 


128 


THE    WONDERLAND    OF    WORK. 


Of  all  the  machines  that  man  has  constructed,  none  is  so  interesting  and  important 
as  the  lathe,  which  is  found  in  some  one  of  its  many  forms  in  almost  every  workshop. 
Some  of  these  forms  are  very  intricate  and  complicated,  so  that,  although  it  is  easy  enough 
to  understand  the  principle  upon  which  the  simple  foot-lathe  of  our  forefathers  works, 

yet  from  the  many  self-feeding  mechanisms 
that  have  in  recent  years  been  added  to  the 
lathe,  and  the  numerous  forms  it  has  been 
made  in  to  suit  particular  kinds  of  work,  it 
would  require  a  very  large  volume  to  describe 
even  one  lathe  of  a  kind  and  its  principal 
mechanisms.  At  the  Vienna  International 
Exhibition  there  were  exhibited  vases  and 
other  similar  articles  of  wood  turned  by  the 
Hercules,  the  remnants  of  an  ancient  Asiatic 
nation  which  had  settled  at  the  time  of  the 
general  migration  of  nations  in  the  most 
remote  parts  of  Galicia,  in  the  dense  forests 
of  the  Carpathian  Mountains,  and  the  lathe 
used  to  produce  these  vases  is,  as  you  see, 
composed  of  two  wooden  plugs,  5  5,  whose 
pointed  ends  support  the  piece  of  wood,  «, 

ANCIENT   LATHE.  ••.•,.  -i  7  .,       • 

which   is   cut  to  shape   or   turned^   as   it   is 

called,  by  tools  held  in  the  workman's  hands,  and  rested  on  the  bar  d.  A  cord  tied  to  the 
end  of  a  sapling  passes  around  one  end  of  the  work  and  is  tied  to  the  treadle,  c,  by  operat- 
ing which  the  work  is  revolved  backward  and  forward  on  the  supporting  centres  5  5. 
A  very  rude  contrivance,  you  will  say,  and  so  it  is,  but  our  forefathers  produced  some 
beautiful  work  on  just  such  rude  lathes. 
The  simplest  lathe  that  is  used  in  civilized 
countries  is  the  foot-lathe,  the  names  of 
its  parts  being  marked  near  them  ;  and  it 
is  easy  to  see  that  by  operating  the  treadle 
the  driving  pulley  causes  the  belt  to  re- 
volve the  cone  continuously  in  one  direc- 
tion, and  that  the  pin  F  drives  the  work 
which  is  held  between  the  ' '  live ' '  and 
' '  dead  centre. ' '  You  will  perhaps  think 
the  words  live  and  dead  curious  ones  to 
apply  to  pieces  of  mechanism,  but  they 
are  not  altogether  out  of  place,  because 

the  live  centre  is  the  one  that  revolves,  while  the  dead  one  remains  motionless.  The 
piece  of  work  we  have  shown  in  the  lathe  has  luckily  an  arm  on  it,  and  that  comes  in  very 
handily  for  the  pin  F  in  the  face-plate  to  drive,  but  this  would  not  often  be  the  case,  and 
the  workman  has  to  resort  to  all  sorts  of  curious  contrivances  to  drive  it.  The  simplest 


LATHE    DOG. 


THE    LATHE    AND    ITS    USES. 


129 


FOOT-LATHE. 


of  these  is  called  a  dog,  a  driver,  or  a  carrier,  the  first  two  being  the  American,  and  the 
last  the  English  name.  The  name  dog  was  doubtless  given  from  the  action  of  the  screw, 
•which  bites  the  work,  and  the  names  carrier  or  driver  from  the  action  of  carrying  or 
driving  the  work. 

To  return  to  our  lathe,  however.  The  shears  or  bed 
used,  in  ancient  times,  to  be  made  of  wood,  but  it  is 
now  made  of  iron  ;  and  while  the  resting  piece  N  was 
in  olden  times  the  only  means  of  supporting  the  cutting- 
tools,  there  are  now  many  other  means  of  holding,  mov- 
ing, and  adjusting  them,  as  we  shall  see  presently.  The 
work  is  cut  to  shape  in  foot-lathes  of  this  kind  by  pressing 
the  cutting  edges  of  the  tools  against  the  revolving  work, 
as  we  see  in  the  case  of  the  graver,  which,  sharp-pointed  though  it  is,  can  be  made  to 
turn  work  having  curves,  sweeps,  and  beads  of  all  shapes  and  sizes  upon  it.  A  marvellous 
tool,  indeed,  is  this  graver,  for  it  is  used  for  all  kinds  of  materials,  except,  perhaps, 


THE  REST 


130 


THE    WONDERLAND    OF    WORK. 


wood,  and  is  held  in  many  different  positions  to  accomplish  different  results.  The 
wood-worker  finds,  however,  just  as  useful  a  tool  in  the  "gouge,"  which  he  holds  just 

as  you  see,  moving  it  along  the  work,  and  twisting  it 
and  turning  it  from  side  to  side  at  all  sorts  of  angles 
and  positions  with  relation  to  the  work,  with  a  dexterity 
and  ease  that  seem  wonderful  enough  to  look  at,  but 
which  seem  really  marvellous  to  one  who  first  attempts 
to  use  it,  because  if  it  happens  to  be  presented  improp- 
erly to  the  work  it  will  rip  in  and  be  wrenched  violently 
from  the  hands,  very  often  tearing  or  splitting  the  work, 
and  throwing  it  out  of  the  lathe. 

The  wood-worker  scorns  the  live  centre  and  the 
dog  or  carrier  of  the  iron -worker,  because  it  takes  too 
long  to  adjust.  The  material  of  his  work  is  a  soft  one, 
that  is  easy  to  cut.  His  lathe  revolves  a  thousand  times 
to  fifty  of  the  iron-worker's  lathe,  while  his  cutting- 
tools  move  so  quickly  that  his  hands  are  constantly  in 
action,  so  that  expedition  becomes  a  sort  of  second 
nature  to  him  ;  hence  he  removes  the  face-plate  and  the 
live  centre,  and  replaces  the  latter  with  a  "fork-centre," 
which  has  a  central  point  to  hold  the  work  true,  and 
two  wings  to  sink  into  the  wood  and  drive  it.  Even 
in  so  simple  a  thing  as  this  fork-centre,  quite  some  care 

must  be  taken  to  enable  it,  to  serve  its  purpose  to  the  best  advantage.  Suppose,  for 
example,  that  the  point  was  not  central  between  the  two  wings,  and  every  time  the 
work  was  replaced  in  the  lathe  it  would  have  to  be  set  with  each  wing  to  its  own  seat 


WOOD-TURNING. 


A  FORK-CENTRE. 


THE   IRON-WORKER  S   BOLT-DRIVER. 


in  the  end  of  the  work,  or  else  the  work  would  not  run  true,  as  it  is  called.  Another 
point  is  that  by  making  the  wings  straight  on  their  sides,  A,  B,  there  is  no  tendency  to 
split  the  work,  while  by  tapering  the  inside  of  each  wing  it  tends  to  close  the  wood  upon 


CUTTING    TOOLS. 


131 


THE    SLIDE-BEST. 


the  central  point,  and  thus  cause  it  to  hold  the  work  more  firmly.  The  expert  workman 
has  in  every  tool  or  appliance  he  uses  or  constructs  simple  little  elements  of  this  kind  to 
consider,  obtaining  widely  different  results  from  very  slight,  and  in  some  cases  almost 
imperceptible,  differences  in  the  shape  or  method  of  using  the  implements  of  his  trade. 

The  iron-turner,  who  may  justly 
be  termed  the  king  of  metal-cutters, 
also  has  his  simple  contrivances  to 
save  time  in  driving  the  work  in  the 
lathe,  and  one  of  the  most  service- 
able of  them  is  the  bolt-driving 
plate  P,  which  is  fastened  to  the 
^ace-plate,  and  fits  over  the  sides  of 
the  head  of  the  bolt  to  be  turned, 
so  that  by  passing  the  bolt-head 
between  the  jaws  6f  the  plate  the 
dog  is  dispensed  with. 

The  hand -lathe,  such  as  we  have 

been  describing,  holds,  however,  but  a  very  insignificant  position  in  the  great  family  of 
lathes,  the  greater  part  of  its  duty  being  done  by  either  slide-rests  or  "self-acting"  or 
"  engine  lathes,''  as  they  are  termed  in  the  United  States.  The  lathe  we  have  thus  far 
made  the  acquaintance  of  is  transformed  into  that  much  more  useful  tool,  the  slide-rest 
lathe,  by  simply  providing  it  with  a  slide- rest  to  carry  the  cutting-tool  instead  of  holding 
it  in  the  hands.  The  lower  " slider"  is  caused  to  move  along  the  lower  "slide"  by 
operating  the  handle  A.  The  upper  "slider"  is  moved  along  the  "cross-slide"  by  the 
handle  c,  and  the  cutting-tool  is  fastened  in  the  tool-post  and  caused  to  move  along  and 
about  the  work  by  revolving  these  two  handles,  the  slide-rest  being  held  firmly  by  bolting 
its  base,  B,  to  the  lathe  shears.  Instead  of  the  short,  slight  cuttings  made  by  the  hand- 
tool,  we  are  now  enabled  to  take  off  the  work  coarse,  strong  cuttings  or  shavings  that 

may  be  made  as  much  as  a  hundred  feet  long,  when 
the  material  is  soft  wrought-iron,  without  seams  or 
black  spots.  It  may  seem  strange  to  speak  of  seams 
and  black  spots  in  polished  iron,  but  if  iron  is  but 
sufficiently  polished  it  is  found  to  contain  numerous 
jet-black  streaks  and  spots  that  do  not  appear  under 
ordinary  circumstances. 

The  shape  of  the  cuttings  or  shavings  pro- 
duced by  a  slide-rest  tool  vary  with  the  hardness 
of  the  metal  as  well  as  with  the  shape  of  the  tool. 
Hard  steel  curls  up  closely  as  you  see,  the  coils 

binding  close  together,  while  soft  wrought-iron  peels  off,  when  cut  by  a  sharp  tool,  in 
smooth  open  coils,  that  wind  round  and  round  as  they  leave  the  tool-point. 

The  tool  itself,  you  will  observe,  is  a  simple  affair,  merely  a  piece  of  tool-steel  forged 
into  shape,  and  having  its  faces  B  and  D  ground  smooth,  so  as  to  produce  sharp-cutting 


CXJTTTNG   STEEL. 


132 


THE    WONDERLAND    OF    WORK. 


CUTTING   WBOUGHT-IKON. 


edges  at  the  edges  of  face  D.     Its  capacity  to  cut  is  produced  by  what  is  called  1 1  harden- 
ing" it,  which  consists  of  simply  heating  it  red-hot  and  plunging  it  into  water,  this  sudden 

cooling  making  it  as  hard  as  glass,  and  as,  through- 
out all  nature,  a  hard  substance  will  cut  a  softer  one, 
so  will  hardened  steel  cut  soft  steel.  All  that  is 
necessary  is  to  apply  sufficient  force,  and  it  does  not 
matter  what  the  shape  of  the  tool  may  be  it  will  sink 
into  the  softer  material.  But  to  enable  the  slide- 
rest  tool  to  cut  easily  and  quickly  it  must  have  a 
sharp  edge,  and  it  is  quite  astonishing  how  long  such 
an  edge  will  last  if  the  work  is  revolved  slow  enough. 

Hundreds  of  feet  of  shaving  can  be  cut  off  without  grinding  the  tool,  especially  if  water 
is  used  to  keep  the  tool  cool,  but  if  it  gets  hot  the  sharp  edge  is  soon  destroyed. 

The  different  shapes  of  tools  used  by  the  turner 
are  numbered  by  the  hundreds,  every  different 
metal  requiring  a  differently  formed  tool.  Some- 
times the  eye  will  not  readily  perceive  the  varia- 
tion of  form  between  two  tools,  of  which  one  will 
cut  a  certain  metal  sweetly  and  easily,  while  the 
other  would  squeak,  rub,  and  grind,  and  show  its 
uselessness  in  a  dozen  different  ways.  The  ancients 
made  their  cutting-tools  of  copper,  which  they  were 
able  to  harden,  but  this  hardening  process  has 
become  a  lost  art,  and  steel  alone  is  our  material 

for  cutting-tools.  But  steel  will  plough  its  way  through  any  of  the  metals,  and  is  on  that 
account  more  valuable  to  man  than  gold,  silver,  and  all  the  precious  stones  put  together. 
If  we  were  called  upon  for  advice  as  to  what  would  be  the  best  shape  of  tool  to  cut  a 
bar  of  iron  into  two  pieces  in  the  lathe,  or  to  cut  a  groove  in  it,  or  if  we  were  asked  how 
to  shape  a  tool  to  "square  up  "  or  smooth  the  end  of  the  bar,  we  should,  unless  we  had 
seen  such  tools,  find  we  had  a  difficult  task  before  us  ;  but  once  having  seen  the  tools, 
we  are  surprised  at  their  simplicity.  Look  at  the  cutting-off  or  grooving  tool ;  it  is  .simply 
a  piece  of  steel  narrowed  at  the  end,  and  is  pushed  forward  while  the  work  is  revolved. 
It  cuts  off  a  clean  curled  shaving,  such  as  shown,  on  wrought-iron,  soft  steel,  or  copper, 
its  top  face  being  hollowed  out.  But  for  brass -work  it  must  not  be  hollowed  out,  or  it 
will  tremble  violently,  or  what  the  workman  calls  "chatter,"  leaving  the  surface  of  the 
work  covered  with  hundreds  of  little  diamond-shaped  undulations,  all  arranged  after  a 
perfect  pattern.  To  have  a  tool  chatter  is  a  sign  of  very  poor  workmanship,  although  it 
is  quite  difficult  at  times  to  prevent  it.  To  face  up  the  end  of  our  shaft,  the  knife-tool 
or  the  squaring-up  tool  is  used,  being  so  shaped  that  its  point  may  be  moved  close  up  to 
the  dead  centre. 

Now  look  how  brass  cuttings  come  off ;  they  are  little  rough  pieces,  with  sharp 
corners  all  about  them  ;  and  if  the  work  is  revolved  quickly,  as  it  should  be  for  brass, 
they  will  fly  off  at  a  great  speed,  and  will  be  so  hot  that  you  cannot  hold  them  in  your 


AN    IKON-CUTTING    TOOL. 


TOOLS    AND    METAL    CUTTINGS. 


133 


THE  WORK 


CUTTING-OFF    TOOL   FOE   IKON.  CUTTING-OFF   TOOL   FOB   BBASS. 


THE     "  SQtTABING-UP        TOOL. 


HOW    BBASS    CUTS    OFF. 


CUTTING-TOOL    FOB   BBASS. 


TOOLS    AND    METAL    CUTTINGS. 


hand.     But  brass  cuttings  are  too  valuable  to  be  allowed  to  fly  all  over  the  shop,  and  so 

the  brass-turner  puts  a  leather  washer  or  pad  upon  the  tool  to  stop  them.     In  olden  times 

the   apprentice   boys   were   given    a    penny   a 

pound  for   all  the  brass  turnings   they  made, 

and  so  they  worked  quickly  and  hard  to  make 

plenty  of  cuttings,  but  in  our  day  wonderfully 

constructed   machines   do   much  of   the    work 

that  formerly  fell  into  the  dexterous  hands  of 

the  brass-turner. 

Slide-rests  do  not  always  carry  one  tool 
only,  but  sometimes  two  or  three,  one  being 
at  the  back  of  the  rest  and  turned  upside 
down,  as  you  see.  Such  rests  are  used  for 
long  shafts  or  rods,  the  two  tools  on  the  left 
or  front  side  of  the  rest  preparing  the  work  for  the  finishing  cut,  which  is  taken  by 
the  tool  on  the  right. 


SLIDE-BEST  WITH   THBEE  TOOLS. 


THE    WONDERLAND    OF    WORK. 


Slide-rests  of  this  kind  are  used  upon  what  are  called  in  England  "  self-acting"  and 
in  America,  "engine  lathes"  in   which  the  tool  is  moved  to  take  its  cut  either  along  or 

across  the  work  by  automatic 
mechanism,  which  is  nearly  all 
hidden,  so  that  it  looks  quite 
marvellous  to  see  it  moving  along, 
cutting  off  the  curled  ribbons  of 
iron  without  any  apparent  means- 


BOEING-TOOL   FOB   IKON. 

to  cause  the  movement.  All  the 
tools  we  have  thus  far  described 
are  used  in  the  engine  lathe  as 
well  as  in  the  slide-rest,  and  are 
for  work  that  is  held  between  the 
lathe  centres,  which  the  work- 
man calls  "outside"  work,  while 
that  containing  holes  or  bores  he 
calls  ' '  inside  ' '  work,  for  which. 


BOEING-TOOL   FOB   BEASS. 

he  uses  various  kinds  and  shapes 
of  boring-tools,  which  are  placed 
in  the  slide-rest  in  the  position 
in  which  you  see  it. 

The  boring-tool  for  iron  or 
steel  is  a  sturdy  fellow,  who  needs 
to  be  as  chunky  as  he  can  be  made,  while  the  boring-tool  for  brass  need  not  be  either  so 
sturdy  or  so  sharp,  but  what  he  lacks  in  these  respects  he  makes  up  in  noise,  for  he 
delights  in  a  heavy  cut  and  a  quick  speed,  and  forces  his  way  ahead  with  a  half -rattling 


THE    CHUCKING    LATHE. 


135 


and  half -grumbling  voice  that  seems  to  say,  "  See  what  a  terrible  fellow  I  am  ;  hark,  how 
I  am  tearing  into  this  metal."  But  if  you  give  him  a  light,  easy  task  he  is  a  terrible 
fellow  to  chatter,  especially  if  you  give  him  the  least  excuse  to  do  so  by  inclining  his  face,  A, 
upwards  instead  of  downwards  towards  the  point.  You  will  see  at  once  that  in  order  to  use 
these  boring-tools  the  work  must  be  held  without  the  aid 
of  the  lathe  centres,  and  so  what  are  called  chucks  are 
used.  The  bell  chuck  was  a  great  favorite  of  the  old 
hand  and  slide-rest  turners,  but  he  is  but  little  used  now. 
He  is  a  sturdy  old  fellow,  and  with  his  screws  set  firmly 
down  upon  the  work  would  hold  it  tighter  than  our 
modern  chucks,  but  like  many  other  old-fashioned  me- 
chanical contrivances,  his  honesty  did  not  make  up  for  his 
slowness,  and  so  he  has  had  to  give  way  to  the  Universal 
chuck,  whose  jaws  all  move  together  and  bite  the  work. 
The  gripping  surface  of  each  jaw  is  called  its  bite,  but  I 

must  tell  you  that  in  very  large  chucks  the  jaws,  or  rather  dogs,  as  they  are  called,  are 
moved  separately,  the  chuck  being  then  called  a  "  dog  chuck." 

Sometimes,  indeed,  the  chuck  has  neither  dogs  nor  jaws,  and  then  it  is  called  a  "  chuck- 
plate,"  and  the  work  is  held  to  it  by  bolts   and  plates   and  other  contrivances  that  are 

too  numerous  to  mention. 

These  "  chuck  -  plates  " 
are  used  for  all  sizes  of  work, 
from  the  smallest  to  the  lar- 
gest, and  it  is  f  oiind,  in  a  great 
many  cases,  to  require  more 
skill  to  chuck  or  hold  the 
work  than  it  does  to  perform 
the  cutting  operations  upon  it. 
You  will  be  surprised  to  hear 
the  cause  of  this,  because  it 
does  not  seem  at  all  likely 


that  a  small  bolt  and  nut, 
weighing  not  more  than  half 
a  pound,  is  capable  of  bend- 
ing a  bar  of  iron  or  steel  that 
is  a  foot  square,  and  not  more 
than  a  yard  long.  Indeed, 
such  a  piece  of  metal  will 

actually  bend  of  its  own  weight ;  and  so  the  greatest  of  carefulness  and  skill  are  necessary 

to  chuck  a  large  piece  of  work  without  bending  it. 

The  chucking  lathe  is  a  short,  chunky  fellow,  that  sometimes  has  no  "  tailstock,"'  a& 

you  see,  giving  him  quite  a  bulldog  look,  as  compared  to  the  dainty  engine  lathe.     Here 

you  see  there  are  two  separate  slide-rests  ;  and  I  may  tell  you  that  in  other  forms,  as,  for 


FACE   PLATE. 


136  THE    WONDERLAND    OF    WORK. 

example,  in  the  lathes  for  turning  the  crank-axles  for  locomotives,  the  reare  five  or  six,  all 
carrying  cutting-tools  at  work  at  the  same  time. 

Let  us  now  make  the  acquaintance  of  some  others  of  the  many  curious  forms  of  the 
lathe.  Here,  for  instance,  we  have  an  example  of  what  appears  to  be  the  most  erratic 
member  of  the  lathe  family,  namely,  the  axe-handle  lathe,  which  can  be  used  to  turn  shoe- 
lasts,  gun  or  rifle  stocks,  or  any  other  oddly  shaped  piece  of  wood-work.  In  the  common 


•wood-turner's  lathe  the  work  flies  around  so  fast  that  you  cannot  see  it  move ;  while  the 
<3utting-tool  moves  comparatively  slowly,  but  here  all  this  is  exactly  reversed,  for  the  cutting- 
tool  whirls  around  so  fast  that  you  cannot  see  what  it  is,  while  the  work  revolves  quite 
slowly.  The  principle  upon  which  this  odd-looking  lathe  works  is  an  exceedingly  simple  one, 
for  it  merely  copies  the  shape  of  whatever  piece  of  work  you  put  into  it ;  nor  will  you  find 
it  at  all  difficult  to  understand  how  this  is  done.  First,  we  see  pulleys  at  c  that  are  driven 


WOOD-WORKER'S  LATHE. 


137 


by  a  strap  or  belt,  and  one  of  which  drives  the  "  dram"  B.  From  B  a  belt  D  drives  a  pulley 
E,  which  in  turn  drives  ahead  H,  to  which  is  fastened  the  cutting-tools,  n  is  a  finished 
axe-handle,  and  G  is 
a  piece  of  wood  to 
be  cut  to  the  same 
shape  as  H  ;  these 
two  pieces  being  re- 
volved about  twenty 
turns  a  minute.  The 
frame  that  carries  the 
cutter-head  F  travels 
on  wheels,  resting  on 
the  frame  A,  and  at 
the  top  it  rests  against 
the  finished  axe-han- 
dle H,  so  that  as  H 
revolves  it  rocks  the 
frame  carrying  the 
tools  F,  and  causes 
them  to  cut  G  to  the 

same      shape      as      H.  AXE-HANDLE  LATHE. 

The  carriage  is  moved 
slowly  along  as  the  cutting  proceeds,  so  that  the  cutters  finish  the  work  in  passing  once 

along  it. 

There  is  one  more  wood-worker's  lathe,  called  the  Waymouth  lathe,  that  we  must  make 

the  acquaintance  of,  because  he  is  such  an  active  little  fellow  and  makes  so  many  things  that 

we  all  use.  Such,  for  ex- 
ample, as  wooden  boxes, 
toy  -  carriages,  wheels, 
wooden  balls,  and  so  on. 
If  you  watch  him  make 
wooden  pill-boxes,  you 
will  see  that  he  cuts  them 
out  of  the  solid  wood  one 
after  another  with  great 
rapidity,  and  that  he 
makes  them  all  just  alike, 
with  the  lids  all  a  close, 
neat  fit,  without  any 
measuring  after  he  has 

WAYMOTJTH   LATHE.  - 

been  once  set.  1  he  work- 
man puts  a  square  stick  of  wood  in  the  lathe  and  simply  pulls  the  long  handle,  first  in 
one  direction  and  then  in  another,  and  brings,  in  one  way  and  another,  four  different  sets 


138 


THE    WONDERLAND    OF    WORK. 


of  tools  to  work  one  after  the  other,  and  finally,  by  pressing  his  knee  against  the  pad  a, 
the  finished  work  is  cut  off.  What  would  strike  you  as  most  funny  is  that  the  workman 
has  to  use  both  hands  and  arms,  as  well  as  his  knee,  and  as  these  movements  are  repeated 
rapidly,  he  looks  like  a  long-legged  spider  stretching  out  his  arms  and  legs  in  all  directions. 
Next  to  the  lathe  the  most  important  iron-cutting  machine-tool  is  the  planing-machine, 
which  consists  of  a  bed,  on  which  is  a  table  that  slides  back  and  forth  with  the  work  bolted 
on  it.  On  each  side  of  the  machine  is  a  "standard"  or  "stanchion,"  which  carries  a 
"cross-bar,"  on  which  is  a  head  that  carries  the  cutting-tool.  By  means  of  self-acting 


Standard 
or  Stanchion 


THE   IKON-PLANING   MACHINE. 


mechanism  this  head  is  gradually  moved  along  the  cross-bar,  taking  one  step  forward  each 
time  the  work-table  has  reversed  its  motion  from  a  backward  to  a  forward  stroke.  The 
machine  is  driven  by  a  belt  which  passes  over  the  driving  pulleys,  and  is  moved  (by 
automatic  mechanism)  from  one  pulley  to  the  other  in  order  to  reverse  the  direction  of 
table-motion,  or  to  stop  it  altogether  ;  hence,  after  the  cutting  has  once  begun,  the  workman 
has  nothing  more  to  do  than  to  watch  the  machine,  because  it  will  go  along  of  itself.  But 
this  does  not  in  any  way  detract  from  the  skill  required  to  work  such  a  machine,  because 
the  shaping  of  the  tool,  the  method  of  holding  the  work,  and  the  rate  of  the  cutting-feed 
are  matters  left  entirely  to  the  workman's  judgment ;  and  these  are  points  that  require  the 


IRON-PLANING    MACHINES 


139 


A   PAIR   OF   SHEAES. 


utmost  thought  and  carefulness  to  produce  the  best  and  the  quickest  results.     Iron-planing 
machines  are  made  in  various  forms  :  the  one  we  are  describing  stands  upon  legs,  as  all  the 
small  ones  do,  but  the  large  ones  require  to  rest  upon  a  solid  founda- 
tion, and  carry  two,  and  sometimes  three,  cutting-tools  which  may 
all  be  used   at   the   same  time.     Some  are   made  to  cut  while  the 
work  travels  back  as  well  as  while  it  is  going  forward,  the  cutting- 
tool  turning  around  every  time  the  table  reverses  its  motion,  and 
being  actuated  by  a  piece  of  mechanism  that  is  called  "  Jim  Crow," 
I  suppose  because  its  sudden  motion  in  turning  about  suggested  the 
nursery  rhyme  of 

"Wheel  about  and  turn  about  and  jump,  Jim  Crow." 

The  massive   appearance   of  the  large 

planing-machine,  and  the  deliberate  manner 

in  which  his  table  crawls  along,  gives  you 

the  idea  that  he  is  a  very  strong  and  merci- 
less fellow,  and  so  indeed  he  is.     But  as  he 

cuts  on  one  stroke  only  he  has  quite  some 

time  to  rest  himself   and  let  the   tool   get 

cool  (for  a  tool  always  gets  warm  or  hot  to 

some  extent  when  it  cuts  metal),  and  if  you 

compare  his  action  to  that  of  a  heavy  lathe 

or  to  a  pair  of  shears  he  does  not  seem  to  be  such  a  terrible  fellow  after  all. 

But  perhaps  you  have  never  seen  a  pair  of  the  kind  of  shears  that  I  am   speaking  of, 

and  if  so  this  is  a  good  time  to  become 
acquainted  with  one.  It  consists  of  a  pair 
of  jaws,  one  of  which  stands  still  while  the 
other  opens  and  shuts  just  like  a  pair  of 
scissors,  cutting  off  the  iron  seemingly  as 
easy  as  you  can  cut  paper  ;  but  of  course  it 
takes  a  very  great  deal  of  power  to  work  it. 
This  particular  machine  is  made  to  cut  up 
the  rails  for  railroads,  as  you  see  in  the 
small  sketch.  In  other  shearing- machines 
one  shear,  or  jaw,  works  straight  up  and 
down,  while  in  yet  others  one  side  of  the 
machine  does  the  shearing  while  the  other 
punches  holes,  which  is  very  convenient  for 
the  boiler-maker,  as  he  has  so  much  shearing 

A  PAIB  OF  BOTAEY  SHEAES.  ^d  punching  tO   do. 

But  there  is  yet  another  kind  of  shear- 
ing-machine, in  which  two  revolving  wheels  do  the  cutting,  the  plate  being  simply  passed 
between  them.  This  is  called  the  "  rotary  shears, "  and  is  not  suitable  for  cutting  very 


140 


THE    WONDERLAND    OF    WORK. 


PUNCHING-BEAE. 


thick  pieces.  Some  of  the  largest  shears  have  their  own  little  steam-engine  to  drive 
them,  and  will  cut  large  pieces  just  as  easily  as  a  small  machine  will  cut  small  ones, 
for  it  is  only  a  question  of  making  the  machine  strong  enough  and  we  can  cut  any 

thickness  either  of   iron  or  steel. 

We  were  speaking  of  punching  a  few  moments  ago,  and  I 
can  tell  you  that  there  are  some  very  peculiar  and  interesting 
facts  connected  with  the  simple  punching  of  a  hole  even  in  a 
boiler  plate.  But  it  will  be  best,  perhaps,  to  begin  at  the 
beginning  and  show  you  some  of  the  means  of  punching  holes. 
First,  then,  we  have  the  punching-bear  :  A  is  the  body,  with  a 
slit  or  jaw  at  B,  through  which  is  a  hole  for  the  punch  to  pass 
down  into,  c  is  a  screw  with  a  hole  at  D  to  put  a  lever  into  to 
wind  the  screw,  at  the  end  of  which  is  the  punch  E.  The 
workman  winds  the  punch  up  out  of  the  way,  puts  the  "  bear" 
on  the  plate,  and  then  winds  down  the  screw  with  a  lever,  and 
the  punch  goes  through  the  plate,  pushing  out  a  little  plug 
which,  when  I  was  a  boy,  we  used  to  play  with  and  call 
"dumps."  Punching  by  hand  in  this  way  is  hard  as  well  as 
slow  work,  and  so  we  have  the  punching-machine,  or  more 
commonly  the  punching  and  shearing  machine.  It  is  driven 

by  a  belt  or  strap  on  the  wheel,  A,  whose  shaft  has  a  small  gear-wheel  driving  the  large 
one,  B.  On  the  same  shaft  as  B  is  a  cam,  c,  which  raises  up  the  arm,  D.  This  arm  is  pivoted 
at  E,  and  is  connected  at  L  to  a  ram  or  plunger,  F,  in  the  end  of  which  the  punch  is 
fastened.  At  G  is  what  is  called  a  bolster,  or  die,  having  a  hole  through  it  to  receive 
the  punch.  At  H  is  a  guard  that  prevents  the  work  from  lifting  up  on  the  upward  stroke 
of  the  punch.  At  j  is  a  shearing-knife,  and  at  K  there  is  another  one  fastened  on  the 
lever  D.  For  punching  the  work 
a  plate  is  laid  on  the  bolster  G  and 
underneath  H,  and  as  the  cam  c 
lifts  the  arm  D,  down  goes  the 
punch  through  the  plate.  w  is 
merely  a  fly-wheel  to  keep  the 
machine  in  steady  motion. 

If  you  place  a  piece  of  baker's 
dough  on  a  piece  of  board  that  has 
a  hole  in  it  as  large  or  a  trifle  larger 
than  your  finger,  and  then  placing 
your  finger  directly  over  the  hole  A  PUNCHING  AND  SHEARING  MACHINE. 

force  it  through  the  dough,  it  will 

pierce  a  hole  without  pushing  any  dough  out.  "What  has  become  of  the  dough  that 
filled  the  place  now  occupied  by  the  hole  ? ' '  you  may  ask  ;  well,  it  has  moved  or  flowed 
out  sideways,  and  strange  as  it  may  seem  to  you,  this  same  action  takes  place  in  punching 
thick  iron,  as  the  little  "  dumps,"  of  which  we  were  speaking  just  now,  will  prove,  because 
the  dump  will  not  fill  the  hole  that  it  came  out  of,  nor  will  it  weigh  as  much  as  the 


EFFECT    OF    PUNCHING    IRON. 


A  PUNCHED  HOLE. 


THE  "DUMP"  THAT  CAMP,  OUT  OF  THE  PUNCHED  HOLE. 


A  HOLE  PUNCHED  WITH  THE  GEAIN. 


THE  WAT  THE  BLOCK  OF  IKON  ALTEES  ITS  SHAPE  FItOM 
BEING  PUNCHED. 


A  HOLE  PUNCHED  ACEOSS  THE  GBAIN. 


A  HOLE  PUNCHED  HALF-WAT  THEOUGH.  A  HOLE  PUNCHED  THEEE  QUAETEBS  THBOUGH, 

THE   FLOW   OF   IRON  WHILE   BEING   PUNCHED. 


142 


THE    WONDERLAND    OF    WORK. 


cuttings  would  weigh  if  we  had  drilled  the  hole.  Here,  for  example,  is  a  square  block  of 
iron  that  has  had  a  hole  punched  through  it,  and  beneath  it  is  the  "  dump,"  or  punching, 
that  was  pushed  out  by  the  punch,  and  you  see  that  the  punching  is  not  more  than  one 
third  as  long  as  the  hole  is  deep.  Clearly,  then,  the  iron  has  moved  or  flowed  out  sideways, 
although  the  punching  was  done  cold.  Before  the  iron  was  punched  its  uppermost  surface 

was  flat,  as  indicated  by  the  dotted  line,  but  after 
punching  it  is  cupped,  and  this  iron  also  must  have 
flowed  out  sideways,  and  this  is  why  the  iron  has 
bulged  out  sideways  from  the  dotted  vertical  lines 
to  the  full  ones.  In  order  to  find  out  in  what 
direction  the  iron  moved  during  the  punching,  the 
piece  after  being  cut  in  halves  may  have  its  face 
covered  with  acid,  which  will  eat  out  the  soft  parts 
of  the  iron,  causing  the  surface  to  present  curved 
streaks  which  show  how  it  flowed  during  the  punch- 
ing. This  piece  of  iron  was  punched  across  the 
grain,  and  the  darker  curved  lines  show  where  the 
pieces  or  plates  of  iron  joined  when  they  were 
welded  together  to  make  the  bar.  Kext  we  have  a 
piece  that  was  punched  lengthways  of  the  grain, 
and  here  you  observe  that  the  curved  lines  do  not 
appear,  but  the  dark  lines,  instead  of  being  straight, 
as  they  were  before  the  punching,  are  warped  from 
their  having  moved  sideways  as  the  punch  de- 
scended. A  more  striking  example  of  the  flow  of 
the  iron  is  given  when  the  punch  is  pressed  only 
partly  through,  for  as  you  see  it  goes  down  a  good 
way  before  the  "dump"  begins  to  form  to  any 
extent,  and  that  it  forms  most  rapidly  when  the 
punch  has  pierced  more  than  half  way  through  and 
towards  the  last  part  of  the  punching  operation. 

It  would  seem  that  the  moving,  or  flowing,  of 
the  iron  would  weaken  it,  but  from  experiments 
that  have  been  made  it  appears  that  under  some 
circumstances  it  actually  strengthens  it.  I  ought  to 
tell  you  though  that  how  much  the  iron  will  flow 
depends  to  a  great  extent,  and  almost  wholly,  upon 
what  size  the  hole  in  the  "  bolster"  is,  and  that  the  larger  this  hole  is  the  less  the  flow. 

Of  course  it  is  only  the  malleable  metals,  such  as  steel,  iron,  copper,  and  gold,  that  flow 
in  this  manner,  and  you  would  readily  understand  that  cast-iron  would  not.  Suppose,  now, 
we  take  a  round,  or  disc-shaped,  piece  of  sheet  steel,  and  we  may  press  it  into  a  cup  shape, 
and  if  you  think  for  a  moment  you  cannot  help  but  wonder  how  the  particles  of  metal  must 
have  moved  and  changed  their  positions  while  the  plate  passed  from  one  shape  into  the  other. 


PRESSING    METAL    INTO    SHAPE. 


HOW    COIXS    ARE    STAMPED. 


143 


In  one  experiment  that  was  made  a  disc  of  cold  steel,  27  inches  in  diameter  and  £  inch 
thick,  was  laid  over  a  trumpet-shaped  die,  and  a  plunger  was  forced  down  on  it,  pressing  it 
partly  down  into  the  die.  But  as  this  pressing  had  made  the  steel  somewhat  brittle  it  had 
to  be  taken  to  a  furnace,  made  red-hot,  and  then  let  cool  slowly.  This  is  called  annealing, 
or  softening,  its  effect  being  to  make  the  steel  stretch  more  without  splitting  or  cracking. 
When  cold  it  was  put  into  the  die  again  and  the  rani  or  plunger  pressed  it  further  down  and 


THE   PIECE   CUT   FEOM 
THE   BAK   OF   STEEL. 


THE  PIECE  ROUGHLY 
FORGED   INTO    SHAPE. 


A  DIE  TURNED  TO 
SHAPE. 


THE  PUNCHEON  WHEN 
FIRST   IMPRESSED. 


A  MATRIX  READY  FOB 
THE    DIE-SINKER. 


THE  DIES  WHEN  THE  IMPRESSION  IS  COMPLETED. 


THE   DIE   FOR    MILLING    THE   EDGES. 


THE   PUNCHEON   AND   THE    DIE   PUT   TOGETHER.  THE   FINISHED    OBVERSE    AND   REVERSE   DIES. 

MAKING  THE   DIES  WITH  WHICH  COINED   MONEY  IS   STAMPED. 


into  the  shape  you  see,  the  diameter  being  11  inches.  The  copper  shells  for  rifle  cartridges 
are  made  in  a  similar  way  ;  but  one  is  not  so  much  surprised  at  copper  bending  this  way 
without  wrinkling  as  that  steel  should  do  so,  even  though  it  is  a  very  soft  kind  of  steel. 

You  will  get  an  excellent  idea  of  how  cold  and  fine-grained  steel  may  be  pressed  into 
ehape  from  hearing  how  the  dies  are  made  which  are  used  to  stamp  the  figuring  and 
lettering  on  money.  For  these  dies  the  very  finest  of  steel  is  used,  and  they  are  at  first 


144  THE    WONDERLAND    OF    WORK. 

simply  blocks  cut  off  a  square  bar.  From  these  square  blocks  what  are  called  matrixes, 
puncheons,  and  dies  are  made.  The  matrix  and  puncheon  are  simply  master-dies  from 
which  the  actual  working-dies  are  made.  These  working-dies  are  called  the  ' '  obverse' '  and 
"reverse"  dies,  each  being  suitable  for  one  side  or  face  of  the  coin  or  piece  of  money. 
Suppose  we  start  from  the  simple  block  of  square  steel  just  as  it  is  cut  from  the  bar,  and 
the  first  operation  is  to  forge  it  into  a  round  shape.  It  is  then  annealed,  or  softened,  to 
make  it  cut  easy,  and  turned  up  to  make  either  a  "puncheon"  or  a  "  matrix,''  as  the  case 
may  be.  For  a  puncheon  it  is  turned  conical  at  the  top,  while  for  a  matrix  it  is  turned 
flat  on  the  top.  The  matrix  then  goes  to  the  engraver  and  lias  the  pattern  cut  in  it.  The 
numeral  figures  are  stamped  in  with  stamps,  and  when  it  is  finished  it  is  hardened  and 
fastened  in  the  end  of  the  screw  of  a  screw-press,  and  a  puncheon  is  placed  beneath  it, 
receiving  an  impression  which  flattens  its  point.  As  this  impression  has  condensed  and 
hardened  the  steel,  it  is  annealed  and  then  again  put  on  the  press  to  have  the  impression 
completed,  and  then  the  puncheon  is  hardened.  This  puncheon  is  put  on  the  end  of  the 
press- screw  and  used  as  a  die  to  make  a  new  matrix,  or  usually  two  or  three  new  ones — a& 
many  impressions  being  given  to  each  as  may  be  found  necessary  to  fully  develop  it. 
The  coining-press,  in  which  the  finished  dies  are  used,  makes  about  sixty  strokes  a 
minute,  impressing  the  coin  on  both  sides  and  milling  its  edge  at  one  stroke. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  metal-cutting  tools  we  have  is  the  milling-machine.  I 
never  could  understand  just  why  it  has  been  given  such  a  name,  nor  why  the  cutters  it 
drives  to  do  the  work  with  should  be  so  often  called  "mills."  The  action  of  the  machine 

is  to  revolve  a  cutter,  and  to  move  the  work  beneath  it ;. 
but  you  would  be  astounded  at  the  great  variety  of  work 
and  what  different  shapes  of  work  can  be  done  in  this  way. 
The  great  usefulness  of  the  machine  consists  in  the  fact 
that  when  once  it  is  set  it  will  turn  out  any  number  of 
pieces  of  work  that  will  be  exactly  alike  both  in  size  and 
shape,  no  matter  how  odd  or  intricate  the  shape  may  be,, 
because  the  work  is  cut  to  fit  the  shape  of  the  cutter, 
whose  teeth  have  previously  been  made  to  the  required 
form.  There  is  something  very  pleasing  to  the  mechanical 
eye  in  a  well-formed  milling  cutter,  as  you  will  notice  in 

A   MILLING-MACHINE    CTJTTEK.  i  V'  i  •  1 

the  one  here  shown.     It  would  be  quite  a  hopeless  task  to 

attempt  to  show  you  what  a  variety  of  shapes  may  be  made  by  a  very  few  cutters  if  the 
work  is  moved  about  under  them  at  different  angles  and  in  different  ways.  For  example, 
the  flutes  in  twist-drills  and  those  in  the  taps  for  cutting  threads  are  cut  in  these  machines,  as 
are  also  the  teeth  of  gear-wheels.  Flat  work  is  cut  with  flat-faced  cutters,  or  sometimes  the 
machine  drives  two  cutters,  and  the  work  is  passed  between  them ;  and  on  some  work  one 
man  or  boy  can  attend  to  several  machines,  as  all  he  has  to  do  is  to  put  the  work  in  and  take 
it  out,  for  the  machine  does  all  the  rest  itself,  moving  the  work  to  the  cutters  and  turning 
it  around  at  the  same  time  if  it  is  required.  "We  do  not  know  who  first  invented  the 
milling-machine,  but  we  do  know  that  its  development  to  its  present  state  of  perfection  has. 
been  made  in  the  United  States,  and  to  a  very  large  extent  in  the  rifle-making  and  sewing- 


A    MILLING-MACHINE. 


145 


A   MILLING-MACHINE. 


machine  manufactories,  where  long  rows  of  them  may  be  seen  stretching  down  the  shops,  all 
silently  cutting  away  at  the  iron  and  steel  as  easily  as  you  please. 

Side  by  side  with  the  milling-machine  we  often  find  the  "  profiling-machine, "  which 
also  uses  revolving  cutters,  but  holds  them  in  a  vertical  instead  of  a  horizontal  position. 
There  are  two  vertical  shafts,  or  spindles,  which  hold  and  drive  the  cutters,  which  are  fitted 
into  their  lower  ends.  The  work  is  held  on  the  table,  which  is  moved  about  and  brought 


146 


THE    WONDERLAND    OF    WORK. 


against  the  cutter.  In  a  great  deal  of  work,  however,  one  of  the  spindles  is  used  to  carry  a 
pin  while  the  other  carries  the  cutter.  A  pattern  of  the  work  to  be  done  is  fastened  on  the 
table,  which  is  so  moved  that  the  edge  of  the  pattern  is  kept  against  the  pin,  and  as  the 
work  is  fastened  to  the  same  table  the  cutter  cuts  the  edge  of  the  work  to  the  same  shape  as 
the  pattern.  Or  suppose  we  want  to  cut,  in  a  piece  of  iron,  the  letter  S.  Then  we  make  a 
pattern  with  the  letter  S  cut  or  sunk  in  it,  and  the  pin  fits  in  the  groove  forming  the  letter, 


THE   PEOFILIXG-MACHINE. 


and  causes  the  table  to  move  in  the  manner  necessary  to  enable  the  cutter  to  also  form  an  S. 
The  pin,  you  must  know,  is  simply  a  guide  that,  by  fitting  into  the  pattern,  enables  the 
workman  to  wind  the  handles  so  as  to  move  the  table  properly.  The  "  profiling-machine" 
is  a  valuable  tool,  or  ' (  machine-tool ' '  (as  machines  that  operate  cutting-tools  are  called), 
but  not  so  useful  as  the  milling-machine,  not  only  because  of  its  more  limited  range  of 
work,  but  also  because  it  has  no  automatic  feed  motions. 


DRILLIXG-MACHLNES. 


147 


As  we  wander  through  the  workshops  of  this  wonderland  of  work  of  ours,  we  pause 
now  and  then  to  think  about  the  number  of  different  methods,  tools,  and  machines  there  are 
for  accomplishing  one  kind  of  work  only.  Every  particular  tool  or  method  has  some 
especial  advantage  for  its  purpose  and  each  is  of  interest. 

The  nature  of  the  material,  the  degree  of  exactness  of  the  work,  the  size  of  the  work, 
and  a  great  many  other  considerations,  step  in  to  alter  the  way  man  attaches  it.  Just  as  the 
difficulties  increase  so  does  man  increase  his  efforts.  It  may  take  him  longer,  it  may  give  him 
more  laborious  work,  but  he  will  accomplish  it  in  the  end.  Look,  for  example,  at  what  a 
number  of  methods  there  are  for  boring  a  hole,  and  how  many  different  kinds  of  tools  and 


BLACKSMITH  S    DRILLING-MACHINE. 


POWER-DRILLING    MACHINE. 


machines  there  are  for  doing  it  with.  First  we  will  take  the  wood-worker's  auger,  because 
it  is  one  of  the  simplest,  one  of  the  easiest  to  use  and  the  quickest  cutting,  and  we  shall  find 
that  it  alone  is  made  in  a  great  many  shapes. 

When  we  want  to  bore  an  ordinary  hole  that  does  not  require  to  be  very  straight, 
parallel,  or  smooth,  we  take  an  auger  that  is  thin  at  the  top  of  the  twist,  because  it  works 
easy.  "When  we  want  a  straight,  smooth  hole,  we  take  the  dowell  auger,  because  the  top  of 
its  twist  is  flattened  and  so  fits  the  hole  closer  and  keeps  it  straight.  When  we  want  to  be 
sure  that  the  screw  at  the  point  shall  not  clog  up,  we  put  a  groove  in  it,  and  when  we  want 
to  bore  a  hole  flat  and  solid  at  the  end  we  use  an  auger  with  no  screw  and  no  side  wing  on  it. 
There  are  a  dozen  or  two  other  kinds,  however,  some  of  which  are  spiral  like  a  coiled 
spring,  which  are  mostly  used  by  ship  carpenters. 


148 


THE    WONDERLAND    OF    WORK 


THE   AUGER. 


THE  NON-CLOOGING 
AUGEK. 


EXPANSION   BIT. 


THE   EXPANSIVE   BIT. 

THE   WOOD-WORKER'S  BORING  TOOLS. 


DRILLS    AND    BRACES. 


149 


" 

A  SPBING-EEEL   DRILL. 


THE  CABPENTEE'S  BEA.CE.        THE  DBILL  BEACE. 


THE   BATCHET  BBACE. 


150 


THP;    WONDERLAND    OF    WORK. 


The  expansive  bit  is  one  that  has  a  "  bit "  that  can  be  moved  in  or  out  of  the  stock 
to  bore  different  sizes  of  holes,  and  is  a  very  useful  tool  indeed. 

ISText  we  may  glance  at  the  more  common  forms  of  iron- workers'  drills  and  hole- 
producing  tools  and  appliances.  First,  the  fiddle-drill  or  bow-drill  which  the  jeweller 
uses  so  often.  It  is  merely  a  drill  fixed  in  a  reel  or  spool  and  revolved  by  having  the 
string  of  a  bow  lapped  once  around  it,  so  that  when  the  bow  is  drawn  back  and 
forth  the  drill  is  revolved  and  pierces  a  small  hole  very  easily  and  readily.  Another  tool 
for  just  the  same  kind  of  work  is  the  "  archimedian "  pull,  in  which  you  pull  up  and 
down  a  barrel-shaped  ferrule,  and  the  drill  stem  is  revolved  because  the  stem  has  grooves 
cut  in  it,  as  you  see,  and  the  ferrule  acts  as  a  nut  in  these  grooves.  When  we  get  to 
larger  holes  we  find  the  blacksmith's  drilling  clamp  which  he  fastens  in  the  vise.  It 

has  a  small  table  at  T  to  put  the  work  on,  and  a 
screw  at  s  to  push  the  drilling  brace  with,  forming 
in  reality  a  more  powerful  substitute  for  the  common 
carpenters'  brace.  The  spring-reel  drill  is  very  much 
like  the  fiddle-drill,  only  that  you  pull  a  cord  instead 
of  the  bow,  and  a  spring  pulls  the  reel  and  drill 
back  again. 

The  iron-workers'  breast-drill  has,  as  you  see, 
gear- wheels  to  it,  so  that  the  drill  may  make  several 
revolutions  to  one  of  the  handle  by  which  the  operator 
turns  it. 

The  ratchet  brace  is  for  larger  holes,  the  handle 
L  being  made  quite  long.  The  drill  fits  in  the  end 
of  the  body  A,  and  is  fed  or  pushed  up  to  its  work 
by  the  screw  r,  and  as  this  particular  one  is  a  self- 
feeding;  ratchet  brace,  all  the  man  has  to  do  is  to 

O  ' 

pull  the  lever  L  back  and  forth.  This  is  the 
most  powerful  of  man's  hand-drilling  tools  for 
metal,  and  is  correspondingly  slow  in  its  move- 
ments, for  in  mechanics  it  is  generally  the  same  as 
in  animal  life,  the  slower  the  machine  moves  the 
more  powerful  strains  it  can  cause  and  endure. 

We  now  come  to  the  common  form  of  iron-workers'  drill  and  find  the  flat  drill  for 
rough  work,  the  quick-cutting  twist-drill  that  always  keeps  its  size  without  requiring 
the  blacksmith  to  reforge  it  as  the  flat  drill  does,  the  straight  flute  drill  that  is  for  the 
same  purpose  as  the  twist-drill,  but  is  more  suitable  for  brass  work,  the  countersink 
for  cutting  taper  recesses,  the  counterbore  for  enlarging  a  part  of  a  hole,  the  reamer 
for  smoothing  out  a  hole,  the  rose-bit  also  for  smoothing  holes,  the  cutter  stock  and  cutter 
for  larger  holes,  and  the  slotting  drill  for  cutting  out  oblong  ones. 

There  are  many  other  kinds  of  drills  and  hole-boring  tools,  among  the  most  curious 
of  which  are  drills  for  boring  square  and  even  triangular  holes,  by  a  drill  that  revolves  while 
cutting.  This  looks  like  an  impossible  thing  to  do,  but  it  is  in  reality  very  simple,  the 


LJUill 


(9 


DRILLING    SQUARE    HOLES. 


BORING    TOOLS. 


151 


STRAIGHT 
FLUTE  DRILL. 


<— 


TIPPED  DKILL. 


FIAT  DBILL. 


COUNTEBBOBE. 


COUNTEB-SINE. 


TWIST  DBILL. 


EEAMBB. 


BOSE-BIT. 


CUTTEBS. 


152 


THE    WONDERLAND    OF    WORK. 


A   DKILL-CHUCK. 


whole  secret  being  in  letting  the  drill  pass,  before  it  reaches  the  work,  through  a  fixed 

guiding   plate  that   has   in   it  the  shape  of  hole  you  want  to  drill,   and   then  giving  to 

the  revolving  drill  liberty  to  move  side- 
ways while  it  revolves,  so  that  it  can 
move  about  and  follow  the  shape  of  hole 
in  the  guiding  plate.  The  letters  A,  B,  c, 
etc.,  are  on  the  parts  that  drive  the  drill 
and  permit  it  to  move  sideways,  and  r 
is  a  guiding  plate  for  drilling  a  square  hole. 
The  drilling-machines  for  driving  hole- 
boring  tools  assume  as  many  shapes  as 
the  different  drills  themselves  do.  The 
machines  for 
boring  holes  in 
wood  run  very 
fast,  because 

wood  is  easy   to  cut  ;  those   for  iron    drilling  run   slower   in 

proportion,  as  the  hole  to   be    drilled   is   larger  in   diameter, 

the  depth  of  the  hole  making  no  difference  to  the  speed  of 

the  drill.      Sometimes  one  machine  drives  several  drills,,  and 

is  called  a  multiple  drilling-machine,   or  a  two,  three  or  four 

spindle  drilling-machine,  the  spindle  being  the  shaft  to  the  end 

of  which  the  drill  is  attached.      Sometimes  the   end   of  the 

drill   fits  directly  into  the  end  of   the  spindle,  and  at  others 

it    is    held    in   a   chuck   that   fastens   to   the    spindle.       The 

blacksmith's  hand-drilling  machine   is   often  bolted  against  a 

post  and  the  drill  is  worked  by  hand.     In  the  power-drilling 

machine   it   is   worked   by  a  belt,  and  there   are   mechanisms 

consisting  of  gear-wheels,   etc.,  to  regulate  the   speed   of  the 

drill  and  to  move  or  feed  it  to  its  cut.     Here  is  an  automatic 

four-spindle   drilling-machine,   there    being  beneath  the  drills 

four  sockets  for  holding  the  work.      These  sockets  are   held 

in   a  table   that   can   be   revolved  so  that  by  moving  it  one- 
quarter    of    a    revolution  the    work   is   moved   from  beneath 

one   drill   to   the   next    one,  so   that  four    operations   can   be 

performed  on  the  work  by  one  man,  and  all  he  has  to  do  is 

to  set  the  drills  in  the  spindles,  and  then  stand  at  one  of  them 

and  put  in  the  work  and  drill  it  with  that  one  spindle.     Then 

he    moves    the   table   one- quarter    turn   and   puts  in   another 

piece  of  work  and  operates  on  it  the  same  time  that  the  piece 

he  put  in  first  is  being  operated  on  by  the  drilling-tool  in   the   second   spindle.     Then 

he  moves  the  table  another  quarter  revolution,  and  puts  in  yet  another  piece  of   work, 

and  so  on  until  the  first  piece  he  puts  in  comes    back    to   him,  when  he    takes   it   out 


A  FOUE-SPINDLE   DRILL. 


DRILLING    AND    BORING    MACHINE. 


153 


154 


THE    WONDERLAND    OF    WORK. 


and  puts  in  another  one,  and  so  on,  thus  doing  four  pieces  of  drilling  at  one  time. 
Beside  the  drills  you  see  spouts  which  supply  them  with  oil,  to  make  them  cut  easy 
and  preserve  their  cutting  edges,  and  below  the  revolving  table  you  see  a  dished  pan 
to  catch  the  cuttings  and  the  waste  oil,  which  is  drained  off  and  used  over  and  over  again. 

The  wood-worker  does  not  use  the  word  drilling,  but  always  calls  the  operation 
boring,  while  the  iron-worker  calls  it  drilling  when  he  cuts  the  hole  out  of  the  solid,  and 
boring  when  he  simply  enlarges  an  existing  hole.  In  the  one  case  he  uses  a  drill, 

in  the  other  a  boring- 
tool  or  a  boring-bar. 
But  the  iron-worker 
sometimes  uses  the  same 
machine  to  both  drill 
and  bore,  making  it 
powerful  enough  to 
bore  as  well  as  drill. 
Boring-machines  always 
have  self-feeding  mech- 
anism, while  drilling-ma- 
chines for  small  holes 
often  have  a  "hand 
feed"  only,  which 
means  that  hand  pres- 
sure is  used  to  push  the 
drill  into  the  work.  To 
hold  the  work  firmly 
it  is  bolted  to  the  table 
T,  and  the  drill  or  the 
boring-bar  goes  into 
the  end  of  the  spindle 
M.  The  wheels  at  a  are 
for  driving  the  machine, 
and  the  belt  B  is  for 
driving  the  spindle  s, 
so  you  see  that  this 
machine  has  two  spin- 
dles, one  being  vertical  and  one  horizontal,  while  both  may  operate  on  the  work  on  the 
table  T  at  the  same  time. 

Boring  operations  often  call  for  the  use  of  very  large  and  powerful  machines,  and 
are  generally  designed  for  one  kind  or  class  of  work  only,  as  in  the  case  of  the  railway-car 
boring-machine,  which  you  see  has  a  crane  for  lifting  the  car  wheels  on  or  off  the  work- 
table  or  chuck.  The  largest  boring-machine  is  that  used  for  boring  fly-wheels  for 
steam-engines,  in  which  there  are  two  boring-bars,  carrying  cutting-tools  at  their 
lower  ends,  one  of  which  may  be  used  to  bore  the  hole  and  the  other  to  turn  up  the 


THE    CAR-WHEEL    BORING-MACHINE. 


BORING    AND    TURNING    MILLS. 


155 


outside  of  the  pulley,  or  both  may  be  set  to  operate  on  the  outside  of  the  work  as  you  see 
in  the  engraving,  in  which  a  pulley  is  shown  on  the  work-table.  Now  although  this 
machine  can  do  turning  as  well  as  boring,  it  belongs  more  to  the  boring  than  it  does 
to  the  turning-machine  family,  but,  strange  to  say,  is  called  a  "  boring  and  turning  mill." 
Its  boring  bars  may  be  set  at  any  required  distance  apart,  and  at  any  point  across  the  table, 
and  may  be  moved  either  horizontally  or  vertically  either  by  hand  or  by  self-acting 


A  BOEING  AND  TURNING  MILL. 


mechanism,  so  that  it  is  a  very  ingenious  machine.     It  was  invented  in  England,  but  has 
been  improved  and  is  more  universally  used  in  the  United  States. 

Many  "heavy  steel  tools"  are  formed  both  of  iron  and  steel,  being  partly  forged  and 
plated  under  the  broad  face  of  a  tilt-hammer,  after  having  been  prepared  or  "moulded" 
by  hand-forging.  Thus  that  part  of  a.  wrench  likely  to  be  subjected  to  great  tension 
would  be  of  iron,  the  remainder  fashioned  of  hard,  fine  steel.  As  we  turn  from  one  to 
another  of  these  countless  useful  things  which  our  workers  have  extracted  from,  shapeless 


156 


THE    WONDERLAND    OF    WORK. 


lumps  of  ironstone,  and  have  forged,  rolled,  squeezed,  drawn,  moulded,  cast,  or  cut 
into  shape,  we  are  reminded  of  what  our  wise  and  thoughtful  Carlyle  wrote  on  this  very 
subject : — 

"  Man  is  a  tool-using  animal,  weak  in  himself,  and  of  small  stature ;  he  stands  on  a 
basis  of  at  most,  for  the  flattest  soled,  of  some  half  square  foot  insecurely  enough;  has 
to  straddle  out  his  legs,  lest  the  very  winds  supplant  him.  Feeblest  of  bipeds !  three 
quintals  are  a  crushing  load  for  him;  the  steer  of  the  meadow  tosses  him  aloft  like  a 
waste  rag.  Nevertheless,  he  can  use  tools,  can  devise  tools;  with  these  the  granite 


SHEFFIELD    TOOLS. 


mountains  melt  into  dust.  Before  him  he  kneads  glowing  iron  as  if  it  were  soft  paste. 
Seas  are  his  smooth  highways,  winds  and  fire  his  unwearing  steeds.  Nowhere  do  you  find 
him  without  tools.  Without  tools  he  is  nothing — with  tools  he  is  all." 

As  children  there  was  nothing  we  liked  better  to  watch  than  the  blacksmith  at 
work  in  the  village  smithy.  Wonderful  seemed  the  strength  and  dexterity  with  which 
he  wielded  the  hammer  over  the  various  bits  of  whity-red  metal,  which  spattered  angry 
sparks  in  every  direction,  as  though  protesting  against  the  heavy  blows  which  were 
bending  it  about  like  dough  to  suit  any  required  purpose.  Now,  though  the  smith 
still  hammers  bits  of  iron  into  shoes,  it  is  not  at  the  same  rate,  for  machinery  (American 
mostly)  has  taken  up  the  greater  part  of  his  work,  and  turns  out  unlimited  numbers 
of  horse  or  ass  shoes,  just  as  it  also  turns  out  metal  "  heels "  and  "  tips "  for  any 


SOME    OF    THE    USES    OF    IRON.  157 

number  of  strong  boots  which  sturdy  boys  may  kick  out;  but  his  task  is  easier,  as 
the  blacksmith  of  to-day  is  provided  with  a  good  supply  of  iron  bars  of  all  sizes, 
shapes,  and  lengths,  so  that  whatever  sort  of  job  he  has  to  do  the  material  is  ready 
at  hand  in  a  convenient  form,  and,  being  heated,  is  soon  bent  and  beaten  into  shape, 
for  this  rod  iron  lends  itself  to  any  kind  of  work,  and  saves  him  much  time  and 
trouble.  A  great  quantity  of  it  comes  from  the  foundries  of  South  Staffordshire,  and 
serves  innumerable  purposes.  Besides  being  fashioned,  as  we  have  seen,  in  the  village 
smithies,  it  is  employed  in  large  works,  where  machinery  turns  it  into  many  familiar 
and  useful  forms  (from  park  railings  to  pokers),  besides  snipping  it  into  endless  nails 
of  all  sorts  and  sizes,  bolts,  bars,  and  fire-irons,  garden  gates  and  railings.  It  is  twisted 
into  chains  and  cables  at  the  rate  of  some  60,000  tons  annually — enough,  one  would 
naturally  fancy,  to  wind  round  the  world. 

The  iron  rods  intended  to  be  used  for  this  purpose  are  all  cut  into  short  lengths 
by  means  of  strong  shears  that  snip  up  the  cold,  hard  metal  bar  as  though  it  were  a 
sugar  stick.  If  these  lengths  are  intended  to  form  a  big  cable,  they  may  be  made 
red-hot  in  a  furnace,  and  placed  in  a  "bending"  machine  which  twists  and  curves  them 
into  the  required  link-shape;  but  they,  as  well  as  every  other  kind  of  iron  chain,  must, 
to  be  depended  upon,  be  forged  by  hand  and  hammer;  no  machinery  can  supply  the 
effect  of  the  intelligently  repeated  "  bang "  which  can  alone  insure  solidity  of  weld,  the 
all-important  consideration  in  these  useful  articles,  many  of  which  are  made  at  the  "  shops," 
though  many  little  smithies  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Birmingham  still  ring  with  the 
clang  of  hammers  forging  and  forming  innumerable  links  that  may  one  day  help  to  keep 
our  ships  fast,  or  even  act  as  a  neat  but  sure  restraint  to  check  Pompey's  wandering 
inclinations.  The  chain-forger  and  his  family,  like  the  poor  nail-makers,  work  hard  for 
little  pay,  and  are  like  them  very  rough-and-ready  people,  not  particularly  fond  of  being 
watched  at  their  task;  yet  it  is  curious  to  notice  with  what  dexterity  they  make 
link  after  link  of  metal,  working  with  two  long  rods,  one  heating  in  the  forge  fire, 
while  the  red  end  of  the  other  is  being  snipped  off,  crooked,  linked  through  another 
link,  bent,  and  welded  together  so  neatly  that  the  join  is  not  to  be  distinguished,  and 
all  this  done  somehow  in  a  twinkling  or  less,  just  the  time  the  last  bar  has  taken  to 
get  hot  again,  and  ready  for  the  skilled  hand  stretched  out  for  it. 

I  do  not  know  where  we  can  find  a  better  place  in  which  to  learn  something 
of  the  useful  nails  and  screws  which  must  be  employed  in  the  different  departments  of 
the  busy  furniture  manufactories.  What  an  endless  supply  there  seems  to  be — drawers 
fitted  with  nails  of  all  sorts  and  sizes,  from  the  tiny  neat  tin  "  tacks "  a  quarter  of  an 
inch  in  length  to  the  mighty  "  mop ;"  from  ordinary  "  clasps,"  much  used  in  builders' 
woodwork  because  they  sink  rapidly  and  easily  down  into  the  surface  of  the  wood  in 
which  they  are  driven,  and  which  can  therefore  be  neatly  planed  and  smoothed  over  them, 
to  the  round-headed  clout  nails  which  are  employed  to  secure  metal  and  wood  together.  We 
can  only  sum  them  up  by  stating  that  there  are  three  distinct  kind  of  nails  manufactured 
in  this  country — wrought  nails,  cast  nails,  and  cut  or  "punched"  nails — but  of  these 
three  kinds  I  am  informed  there  are  three  hundred  varieties,  each  variety  averaging  ten 
sizes  one  or  the  other  of  these  serving  every  possible  purpose. 


158  THE    WONDERLAND    OF    WORK. 

I  once  read  of  a  tribe  of  African  savages  that,  on  being  presented  with  a  bagful 
of  nails  by  some  European  traders,  proceeded  at  once  to  sow  them  carefully  in  the  earth, 
taking  them  for  some  sort  of  rare  seeds,  and  expecting  that,  as  a  matter  of  course,  they 
would  produce  a  fine  crop  of  their  own  kind.  But  nails  are  not  quite  so  easily  obtained, 
though  the  roughest  and  simplest  sorts  are  turned  out  at  an  astonishingly  rapid  rate. 

"Wrought"  nails  are  made  by  hand  on  a  small  steel  anvil,  and  of  a  special  kind 
of  iron  called  nail-rod,  made  by  rolling  the  metal  into  plates  of  the  requisite  thickness, 
and  cutting  them  into  long  thin  strips  in  what  is  called  a  "  slitting "  mill.  Some  years 
ago  there  was  no  other  kind  known,  and  50,000  men,  women,  and  children  earned  their 
living  by  this  business ;  but  now  machinery  has  taken  it  up,  and  nailers  are  getting 
fewer  every  day,  though  still,  if  we  wander  about  the  neighbourhood  of  Birmingham, 
or  through  the  hamlets  about  Dudley  and  Bromsgrove,  dingy,  dirty  Smethwick, 
for  instance,  the  very  heart  of  the  nailing  district,  we  shall  see  bright  forges  burning 
in  the  depths  of  the  smoky  cottage  rooms,  or  in  little  sheds  outside — humble  forges,  at 
which  stand  whole  rows  of  stout-armed  women  brandishing  big,  heavy  hammers  as  though 
ihey  were  toys ;  for  this  hand  nail-making  has  always  been  a  home  trade  at  which  father, 
another,  sons,  and  daughters,  even  quite  little  ones,  worked  together  at  a  hard  task  badly 
paid  for  by  the  nail-masters. 

These  nailers  usually  worked  at  different  kinds  of  nails.  There  were  "hundreds," 
those  who  only  made  large  nails  or  spikes,  and  "  thousands,"  who  produced  neater 
work;  some  turning  out  horseshoeing  nails  (this  branch  of  the  trade  was,  however, 
in.  the  hands  of  men  only),  others  clasps,  others  rose,  clouts,  tacks,  brads,  and  so  on. 
By  this  means  they  acquired  great  perfection  and  dexterity  at  their  speciality,  working 
so  fast  that  one  nailer  is  known  to  have  made  40,800  "  flooring  clasps "  in  two  weeks, 
the  wonder  of  which  we  shall  better  understand  if  we  remember  that  to  do  this  he  had 
to  heat  a  rod  of  iron  42,836  times,  weld  together  all  sorts  of  short  pieces,  and  strike 
each  nail  with  his  hammer  twenty-five  times. 

If  we  peep  into  one  of  these  dingy  shops  where  the  nailer,  who,  as  we  know,  if 
it  be  any  but  a  horseshoe  forge,  is  most  likely  a  woman,  we  shall  find  her  with  the 
sleeves  of  her  old  stuff  gown  pushed  very  high,  hard  at  work  mid  grime  and  smoke, 
with  very  likely  a  mere  child  toiling  at  the  bellows.  There  is  but  little  else  to  be 
seen,  for  the  place  is  bare  and  dismal.  There  is  the  small  anvil  on  its  low  block,  chisels, 
a  variety  of  tools,  pieces  of  perforated  steel,  and  what  is  termed  a  "bolster,"  through 
which  the  long  spike  of  the  nail  is  to  be  dropped  that  the  head  may  be  formed,  unless 
it  is  an  ornamental  one,  in  which  case  it  will  be  formed  by  a  ' ( swage/'  or  die,  or 
perhaps  by  an  "oliver,"  or  double  hammer  worked  by  treadle  and  cords,  one  hammer 
drawing  out  the  shank  while  the  upper  end  of  the  nail  is  held  fast  in  the  "bolster" 
under  the  other  hammer,  on  the  face  of  which  a  die  or  pattern  of  the  nail-head  is 
hollowed.  At  a  touch  on  the  treadle  this  end  of  the  hammer  comes  down  with  a 
heavy  snap  on  the  rough  protruding  end  of  the  nail,  which  is  thus  at  a  touch  driven 
into  the  required  shape. 

But  just  now  this  is  not  what  we  shall  see,  for  our  nailer — or  there  may  be  several, 
as  sometimes  they  hire  a  hearth,  or  "  standing,"  when  they  have  not  one  at  home — takes 


A'AILEKS. 


159 


ap  her  big  hammer,   weighing  some  twenty  pounds  or  more,  and  having  but  one  striking 
face  inclining  towards  the  handle  ;   then  she  places  several    long  thin  rods  of    iron  on  the 


THE    NAIL-MAKERS. 


hearth  fire,  which  she  or  the  child  brightens  up  by  means  of  those  big  ragged  bellows ;  then, 
as  fast  as  one  of  these  grows  white-red,  she  takes  it  out  of  the  coals,  places  the  hot  blunt 
end  on  the  anvil,  hammers  it  into  a  spike,  snips  it  on  the  chisel,  then  drops  the  loosened 
«pike  end  into  one  of  the  two  holes  in  the  "  bolster,"  cuts  it  off  from  the  long  rod  and  by 


160 


THE    WONDERLAND    OF    WORK. 


a  few  well-directed  heavy  blows  turns  the  rough  upper  end  into  a  knob,  then  into  a  neat 
head — the  whole  task  being  accomplished  in  less  time  than  I  have  taken  to  describe  it. 

But  as  we  know  machine-made,  or  cut  nails,  as  they  are  termed,  are  slowly  making 
their  way,  because  they  can  be  made  so  much  cheaper.  "Rose,"  "rose  clasp,"  and 
"horse"  are  those  in  which  machinery  has  as  yet  succeeded  in  rivalling  hand- work  in  Eng- 
land. But  in  the 
United  States  the 
cut  nail  has  driven 
forged  nails  com- 
pletely out  of  com- 
mon use,  relegat- 
ing them  to  a  few 
special  uses  on  fine 
classes  of  work,  for 
the  hand- forged 
nail  is  still  the  best 
and  strongest,  es- 
pecially for  cases 
in  which  the  end 
requires  to  be  well 
clinched  over  with- 
out cracking  or 
breaking. 

But  some  of 
these  cut  nails, 
such  as  clasp,  rose, 
slate,  clout,  and 
the  large  and  use- 
ful family  of  tacks, 
require  to  be  prop- 
erly headed.  To 
begin  with,  they 
are  all  formed  as- 
mere  wedge-shap- 
ed sprigs,  thick  all 
the  way  through 
as  the  sheet  of 

metal  out  of  which  they  have  been  cut  by  the  slicer  of  the  nail-making  machine,  but  those 
intended  to  be  headed  drop  straight  into  "grips,"  from  which  they  project  somewhat,  until 
a  sliding  bar  bearing  a  heading-die  suddenly  "upsets"  the  projecting  bit,  and  leaves  it  shaped 
into  a  head,  after  which  the  nail  is  pushed  aside  to  make  room  for  another. 

These  ingenious  nail-cutting  and  heading  machines  are  self -feeding,  often  snipping  off 
five  strips  of  metal  at  one  time,  and  cut  and  stamp  at  such  a  rate  that  they  will  turn, 


A  NATL-FOBGING  MACHINE. 


TACKS    AND    WOOD-SCREWS.  161 

out  somewhere  about  a  thousand  neat  and  useful  sparrables — which  ought  to  be  sparrow-bills, 
being  named  after  their  shape — sprigs,  or  brads,  per  minute,  and  the  larger  and  more 
complete  "  headed "  nails  at  the  rate  of  from  seventy  to  one  hundred  in  the  same  time. 

Most  of  the  "  tacks "  thus  turned  out  are  somewhat  smartened,  though  principally  to 
prevent  their  rusting,  before  being  sent  on  their  way  through  the  world,  by  being  tinged 
blue  or  black,  or  even  made  almost  to  resemble  silver.  This  is  done  in  various  ways.  The 
last  bright  "  white  tacks  "  are  first  thoroughly  cleansed  by  soaking  in  a  pickle  of  diluted 
sulphuric  acid,  then  washed  in  clean  water,  wiped,  covered  with  powdered  resin,  and  dipped 
in  a  bath  of  molten  tin. 

There  are  other  special  kinds  of  nails  used  in  our  Wonderland,  where  such  things  represent 
the  pins  and  needles  of  domestic  life.  There  are  the  long,  fine,  straight  "  pointes  des  Paris/' 
made  from  iron  wire,  which  seem  mostly  to  hold  very  fast  those  numerous  packing-cases 
and  crates  for  one  use  and  another,  made  chiefly  of  soft  clean  willow-wood,  which  come  to  us, 
filled  with  eggs  or  toys,  from  the  Continent.  These  nails  are  easy  to  get  in  and  difficult 
to  get  out — great  recommendations  for  their  particular  purposes.  These  shining  "  pointes  " 
are  from  one  to  four  inches  long,  and  made  by  machinery  which  cuts,  heads,  and  points  them 
quite  independently  of  any  assistance.  There  are  also  a  few  kinds  of  brass  nails,  made  of 
an  alloy  of  copper  and  tin,  used  as  ornaments,  or  for  the  fastening  of  copper  or  patent  sheeting 
to  the  hulls  of  ships  or  other  places. 

Before  leaving  this  subject,  we  must  mention  one  of  the  cheapest  and  roughest  kinds  of 
nail,  used  to  hold  laths  and  plaster  together,  but  more  employed  in  the  vinery  or  garden 
walls  than  anywhere  else,  I  think.  These  are  all  cast  in  sand  moulds,  such  as  we  have 
seen  in  a  foundry,  the  impression  of  a  nail  being  taken  in  halves,  which  are  clamped 
together,  then  the  boiling  metal  being  allowed  to  run  in  and  fill  the  hollow — a  simple 
enough  process ;  but  the  cast  nails  thus  produced  are  too  coarse  and  brittle  to  be  of  much 
service. 

And  next  concerning  the  several  varieties  of  "  wood-screws "  used  by  our  carpenters  and 
joiners  in  many  kinds  of  work  where  ordinary  straight  nails  could  not  be  relied  upon.  "  Wood- 
screws  "  are  made  of  iron  wire,  and  are  principally  distinguished  one  from  another  by  the 
form  of  their  heads.  They  were  made  singly  by  hand,  the  blanks  being  forged,  the  "  slip  " 
made  by  a  hand-saw,  and  the  "  worm  "  turned  in  a  lathe,  until,  little  more  than  a  hundred 
years  ago,  a  complicated  apparatus  was  first  invented  which  aided  somewhat  in  the  task, 
though  still  it  remained  a  slow  and  tedious  one,  until  taken  in  hand  by  Colbert,  a  clever 
German  clockmaker,  who  invented  machines  for  the  purpose,  the  same  in  principle  as 
those  still  in  use,  but  of  course  they  have  been  much  modified  and  improved  upon. 
Now,  instead  of  counting  his  "  wood-screws "  by  the  hundred,  the  dealer  reckons  by 
thousands  of  dozens,  no  less  than  9,000  tons  of  iron  wire  being  employed  in  one  year  for 
the  making  of  9,000,000  gross  of  these  useful  little  articles. 

Unlike  wrought  nails,  screws,  which  once  also  formed  home-work  for  entire  families, 
are  now  made  in  large  factories,  which  usually  possess  wonderful  automatic  machines 
that  first  came  from  America,  and  the  use  of  which  has  worked  a  complete  revolution 
in  this  special  industry,  and  caused  screws  to  be  cheaper  and  in  much  more  demand. 

These  machines  are  certainly  wonders   of   their   kind,   though   I  am   not   sure   I    can 


162 


THE    WONDERLAND    OF    WORK. 


SCEEWS   FOB   VABIOUS   PURPOSES. 


make  you  quite  understand  how  they  work,  or  how  those  great  coils  of  metal  wire  can 
ever  be  changed  into  these  various  neat  little  screws,  which  serve  so  many  useful  purposes. 
The  first  thing  done  is  to  cut  it  into  "  blanks/'  or  plain  lengths.  All  the  attendant  has  to 
do  is  to  place  one  end  of  the  coil  under  a  holder,  which,  taking  a  firm  grip  of  it,  proceeds, 
all  unaided  by  man,  to  do  what  is  required;  and  a  very  curious  "all"  it  is,  for  first  we 
see  a  sort  of  paw  rush  at  the  intruder  and  eagerly  drag  it  into  a  round  hole  cut  in  two 
blocks,  which  close  up  and  hold  it  between  them,  leaving  a  small  piece  of  the  wire, 
which  is  to  form  its  head,  projecting.  Then  a 
heavy,  sturdy  steel  bar  rushes  up  full  at  the  pro- 
jecting piece,  squeezing  and  crushing  it  into  the 
die  which  is  in  the  end  of  the  blocks,  and  thus 
violently  fashioning  it  with  a  certain  and  resistless 
force  there  is  no  avoiding.  The  blocks  then  slip 
sharply  aside,  which  movement  cuts  off  the  bit  of 
wire  from  the  long  coil,  its  tail;  they  then  loosen 
their  tight  hold,  and  with  a  sudden  shove  the  short 
blank  drops  into  a  receptacle  below,  where  it  is 
almost  instantly  joined  by  another,  and  another,  and 
thousands  of  others,  for  the  untiring  machine  never 

stops  or  wavers  until  the  whole  shining  coil  lies  snipped  into  blanks,  and  then  it  is  quite 
ready  for  a  fresh  bite  at  the  next  one  provided. 

And  now  for  the  "turning/'  that  very  particular  part  of  a  screw,  which  is  done  in  a 
larger  and  very  different  machine,  whose  work  is  even  more  surprising  to  an  unaccustomed 
eye,  if  we  can  only  manage  to  follow  the  different  parts  as  they  fly  in  and  out.  All 
these  as  yet  rough  "blanks"  are  placed  in  a  receptacle,  or  hopper,  near  the  top  of 
the  machine,  where  they  lie  all  of  a  heap.  In  this  hopper  there  appears  to  be  a  four- 
armed  thing  very  like  a  metal  windmill,  which  certainly  twirls  round  and  scatters  that 
heap  of  short  pieces  lying  thick  about  it,  one  or  other  of  its  arms  for  ever  catching  a  few 
and  sending  them  flying,  first  on  to  a  platform,  from  which  they  slide  on  to  a  slotted 
incline,  into  which  they  tumble  and  struggle  in  a  bewildered  fashion;  their  numbers  are, 
however,  regulated  by  a  contrivance  which  prevents  their  being  in  too  great  a  hurry, 
so  that  at  last  when  they  arrive  at  a  kind  of  little  door  they  form  quite  an  orderly 
procession. 

So  far  all  is  clear,  but  now  for  what  happens  we  must  watch  closely  to  note  how 
the  little  door  opens,  allows  one  blank  to  pass  through,  then  what  might  be  two  hard  iron 
fingers  snatch  up  the  intruder  and  place  it  opposite  a  clamp,  which  opens  to  take  it,  and 
that  it  should  make  no  difficulty  at  entering,  a  little  rod  facing  the  clamp  pops  out  and 
gives  a  helping  push;  then  the  clamp  holds  it  in  a  firm  grip,  while  a  sharp  cutter  rushes 
up  from  somewhere  to  work  its  will  on  the  blank,  and  then  to  vanish  as  suddenly;  the 
clamp  loosens  its  hold,  a  rod  gives  a  shove  out  of  the  way,  meaning  "make  room  for  a 
newcomer/'  and  it  drops  down  into  a  pan,  in  which  it  finds  many  of  its  brother  blanks 
that,  like  itself,  have  had  all  their  heads  neatly  turned  and  all  their  ends  ground  to  a 
point. 


THE    THREAD    OF    SCREWS. 


163 


THE  PITCH  OF  A  THEEAD. 


A  DOUBLE  THEEAD. 


The  screws  used  for  holding  iron-work  together  are  very  different  affairs  from  those 
used  for  wood-work,  both  in  their  "  pitches  "  and  in  their  shapes.     But  as  it  is  not  likely 

that  you  know  what  the  "  pitch  "  of  a  thread  is,  it  may 
be  as  well  to  tell  you  that  it  means  the  distance  apart 
of  the  threads.  Here,  for  instance,  you  see  a  thread 
having  J-inch  pitch,  or,  what  is  the  same  thing,  a  pitch 
of  4  per  inch,  as 
it  is  more  often 
termed.  Some- 
times, too,  the 
iron-worker  uses 
a  thread  having 
a  "double"  or  a 
"treble"  pitch, 

which  means  that  instead  of  being  formed  of  one 
continuous  spiral  it  is  formed  of  two  or  three  spirals, 

one    of    which 

you  see  at  A,  and  the  other  at  B,  which  is  carried  as 
far  as  the  point  c.  So  you  see  that  a  double  thread 
winds  forward 
twice  as  fast  as  a 
single  one.  The 
standard  or  uni- 
versally accepted 
forms  of  thread 
used  by  English 

machinists  is  the  rounded  top  and  bottom,  or  Whit- 
worth,   thread,  while  the  standard  American  thread 

has  a  flat  top  and 
bottom.  Then  we 
have,  too,  the  square 
thread,  that  is  used 

in  all  countries,  and  the  ratchet  thread    as  well  as  the 
right  and  left  hand  thread. 

o 

These  screws  are 
cut  in  many  differ- 
ent ways.  For  in- 
stance, the  jeweller 

outs  them  upon  his  small  screws  by  hand  with  a 
"  screw-plate,"  which  is  a  steel  plate  containing  dif- 
ferent sizes  of  holes,  with  a  screw  or  thread  cut  in 
them,  and  with  notches  cut  in  their  sides  to  give  the 
cutting  edges.  All  he  has  to  do  is  to  place  one  of 


THE   ENGLISH    STANDABD    THEEAD. 


THE   AMERICAN    STANDABD    THEEAD. 


THE    EATCHET    THBEAD. 


THE   SQUABE  THBEAD. 


THE    WONDERLAND    OF    WORK 


these  holes  on  the  end  of  the  blank  and  turn  the  plate  around,  and  it  passes  down  the  screw 
and  cuts  a  thread  on  it.  But  such  a  tool  does  not  cut  sharp  enough  for  large  screws  ;  so  the 

machinist  uses  a  stock  and 
die — the  stock  being  a  lever 
holding  two  dies,  which  may 
be  opened  or  closed  with  a 
set-screw  so  that  he  may 
wind  the  stock  up  and  down 
the  bolt,  taking  a  separate  cut 
each  time  until  a  fully  cut 
thread  is  formed. 

A  EIGHT    AND    LEFT    HAND    THEEAD.  T  »  ,         . . 

In   other    forms   of    die, 

however,  the  full  depth  of  thread  is  cut  by  one  passage  of  the  dies  down  the  work  ;  and  as 
the  dies  wear  larger  means  are  provided  to  close  them  into  their  proper  size.  These  are 
called  solid  or  solid  adjustable  dies.  There  are  two  half -circular  dies,  A,  held  in  a  ring  or 


A    SCKEW    PLATE. 


A    STOCK    AND    DIE. 


collet,  B  ;  two  screws,  D,  serve  to  keep  the  dies  apart,  and  two  more,  E,  are  used  to  close 
them  in,  so  that  by  means  of  screwing  up  or  unscrewing  these  four  screws  the  size  the  dies 
will  cut  may  be  adjusted. 


ADJUSTABLE  DIES. 


A  SOLID  ADJUSTABLE  DIE. 


But  by  far  the  larger  part  of  machinists'  screws  are  cut  in  machines,  and  in  these  square 
adjustable  dies  are  then  often  used  ;  the  screws  at  the  corner  being  to  set  the  four  bits,  or 
"  chasers,"  that  cut  the  thread,  while  these  "  chasers  "  are  readily  removable  to  grind  them 
sharp  again  when  they  get  dull. 


TAPS,  AND    HOW    THEY    ARE    USED. 


165 


So  far  we  have  only  spoken  of  the  tools  used  to  cut  threads  on  the  outside  of  bolts, 
but  here  we  have  the  "tap,"  or  tool  used  to  cut  threads  or  screws  in  holes.  This,  too,  is 
simply  pressed  into  the  mouth  of  the  hole  and  revolved,  and  down  it  goes,  burying  itself 
into  the  iron  with  a  terrible  grip,  and  requiring  a  good  deal  of  hard  work  to  turn  it  by  hand. 


A   MASTER   TAP   OK   HOB. 


much  hand-tapping  is  done  nowadays,  because  it  is  too  slow  and  laborious  an  operation. 
The  solid  dies  of  which  we  have  just  been  speaking  are  cut  or  threaded  by  a  master  tap, 
having  more  flutes  and  so  more  teeth  than  the  hand  or  machine  tap. 

The  hand  turner  cuts  threads  in  the  lathe  with  a  comb  or  chaser,  A,  which  he  pushes 


THE  HAND  TAP. 


against  the  revolving  work,  causing  its  teeth  to  cut  the  grooves  necessary  to  form  a  thread. 
The  chaser  is  cut  in  the  same  way  by  pushing  it  against  a  hob,  or  hub,  as  some  call  it.  It 
is  a  rare  thing  to  see  a  thread  chased  by  hand  in  these  days  of  self-acting  lathes  and  screw- 
cuttiiig  machines,  for  the  lathe  can  move  the  chaser  along  and  take  a  heavy  cut  much  more 


THE    CHASEK. 


SINGLE-POINT   TOOL, 


easily  than  a  workman  can ;  and  for  sharp-pointed  threads   a  single-pointed  tool  is  used, 
cutting  out  a  long  curly  shaving  much  thicker  than  the  chaser  used  by  hand  could  do. 

There  is  another  kind  of  screw,  used  by  the  machinist,  with  which  you  may  as  well 
become  acquainted,  its  name  being  the  "  machine  screw."     Now  whether  it  got  this  name 


166 


THE    WONDERLAND    OF  -WORK. 


from  being  made  in  a  machine,  or  because  it  is  mostly  used  about  the  different  parts  of 
machines,  it  is  hard  to  say  ;  but  it  is  made  in  many  forms,  as,  with  square-heads,  button- 
heads,  etc.,  and  in  most  cases  has  a  screw-driver  head — that  is  to  say,  a  head  with  a  slot  or 
saw-cut  in  it  to  receive  a  screw-driver. 

The  machine  for  making  machine-screws  is  aptly  enough  called  a  screw-machine,  its 
main  difference  from  an  ordinary  lathe  being  that  it  possesses  what  is  called  a  "turret- 
head,  ' '  although  some  call  it  a  "  monitor-head  ;' '  these  names  evidently  having  been  given 

it  from  its  resemblance 
to  the  turret  of  a  mon- 
itor war-ship.  In  each 
of  the  holes  of  this 
"turret"  a  tool  is 
placed,  and  all  the 
workman  has  to  do  is 
to  place  through  the 
"live  spindle,"  H 
(which  is  hollow  all 
the  way  through),  a 
rod  or  bar  of  iron  to 
make  the  work  from, 
and  grip  it  in  the 
chuck.  When  he  pulls 
the  long  handle  over 
to  the  left  the  moni- 
tor-head glides  for- 
ward and  the  first  tool 
operates  on  the  end  of 
the  bar.  When  the 
turret  has  moved  for- 
ward until  it  comes 
against  a  stop,,  and 
can  go  no  farther,  the 
workman  pushes  the 
handle  back,  moving 
the  turret  back  and 

causing  it  to  revolve  enough  to  bring  another  tool  opposite  to  the  work,  and  so  on,  so  that 
by  operating  the  lever  back  and  f orth  one  tool  after  another  comes  into  action,  each  one 
performing  some  special  service,  and  finally  the  slide-rest  is  used  to  cut  the  finished  work 
off  the  bar  or  rod,  and  it  falls  below.  You  would  be  very  much  interested  and  quite 
surprised  to  see  how  quickly  this  machine  does  its  work,  and  what  a  great  deal  of  labour  it 
saves.  But  it  requires  rare  skill  and  fine  workmanship  to  make  it.  Indeed,  it  would  be 
interesting  if  we  could  know  how  many  hundreds  of  hours  of  thought  have  been  devoted  by 
machine  designers  to  produce  it  in  its  most  efficient  and  handy  form.  You  must  not, 


A   SCREW-MACHINE. 


MACHIXE-MADE    SCREWS. 


167 


however,  suppose  that  this  is  the  only  form  of  machine  used  for  making  work  having  screw- 
threads  upon  it,  or  that  it  is  used  for  making  screws  only  ;  for  it  will  make  any  kind  of 
round  work  that  can  be  cut  out  of  a  rod  of  iron. 


SCREWS   MADE   IN   THE   SCREW-MACHINE. 


The  common  bolts  that  you  see  in  the  machine-shop  are  threaded  in  a  screw-cutting- 
machine  that  is  commonly  called  a  "  bolt-cutter."  It  is  made  to  be  either  used  by  hand  or 
driven  by  a  belt  or  strap.  In  the  hand  bolt-cutter  the  workman  winds  around  the  long 
lever,  and  this  causes  the  work  to  revolve  ;  then  he  winds  the  shorter  handle  and  the  turret- 


A  HAND  B01T-CT7TTEB. 


head  advances  and  forces  the  die  upon  the  end  of  the  bolt  or  work.  This  is  tiring  work, 
unless  the  screws  are  small  ones ;  so  hand  machines  are  not  used  when  power-driven  ones 
can  be  afforded  or  are  at  hand. 

In  the  power  machine  all  the  operator  has  to  do  is  to  wind  the  handle  and  thus  -pull 


168 


THE    WONDERLAND    OF    WORK. 


the  turret-head  to  the  work.  In  both  machines  the  turret  can  hold,  as  you  see,  several 
sizes  of  dies,  or  other  tools  if  necessary,  which  may  be  used  to  round  up  the  end  of  the  bolt, 
cut  off  a  part  of  its  thread,  or  perform  any  other  operation  that  may  be  possible  in  a 
machine  that  advances  the  tool  from  the  end  of  the  work. 

In  the  nut-tapping  machines  there  are  sometimes  three  or  four  spindles,  all  driven  by 
one  belt,  and  each  driving  a  separate  tap,  which  is  supplied  with  oil  from  a  pump  that 
forms  a  part  of  the  machine.  The  nuts  are  held  in  the  three  heads  or  frames  you  see  at  the 
right-hand  end  of  the  machine,  and  are  forced  on  the  ends  of  the  tap  by  the  upright  hand- 


A   POWER   BOLT-CUTTEK. 


levers.  But  as  soon  as  the  tap  gets  a  f ah*  hold  upon  the  nut  it  will  pull  it  forward  itself 
and  finally  string  it  on  the  tap  shank.  After  three  or  four  nuts  have  become  thus  strung 
the  tap  is  removed  to  take  them  off,  so  that  what  with  putting  the  nuts  in  and  taking  them 
out  the  workman  is  kept  pretty  busy,  as  you  can  well  imagine. 

The  most  wonderful  machine  ever  made  for  screw-making  is  one  used  by  the  watch 
manufacturers.  One  of  these  machines  will  make  5000  screws  complete  in  a  day,  and  one 
girl  can  attend  to  ten  machines.  But  you  can  hold  all  the  screws  a  machine  can  make  in  a 
day  in  your  hands,  for  it  takes  about  9000  of  them  to  weigh  an  ounce.  Now  you  can 
imagine  what  a  tiny  little  screw  it  must  be  that  weighs  only  the  nine-thousandth  part  of  an 
ounce,  and  just  think  with  what  great  precision  the  machine  must  work  to  make  such 
little  midgets. 


A    NUT-TAPPING    MACHINE. 


169 


A  coil  of  'polished  wire  is  suspended  at  the  end  of  the  machine,  its  end  being  passed 
through  the  hollow  spindle  and  into  the  chuck,  and  the  machine  is  then  started.  First  a 
diminutive  tool  comes  forward  and  trims  off  the  end  of  the  wire,  and  as  soon  as  it  retires 
another  comes  forward  and  cuts  down  the  stem,  thus  leaving  a  head  ;  as  soon  as  this  tool 
recedes  a  third  hops 
out  and  cuts  the  screw. 
A  fourth  nearly  cuts  it 
off,  leaving  the  head 
of  the  proper  thick- 
ness ;  and  then  comes 
forth  a  pair  of  mechan- 
ical fingers  which  take 
hold  of  the  screw, 
break  it  off,  and  carry 
it  to  another  part  of 
the  machine,  where  a 
revolving  saw  advances 
and  cuts  the  slot  for 
the  screw-driver.  These 
operations  follow  one 
another  rapidly  but 
with  great  precision, 
all  the  attention  the 
machine  requires  being 
to  supply  it  with  oil 
and  with  a  new  coil  of 
wire  when  necessary. 
In  producing  machines 
of  this  kind,  or  at  least 
in  bringing  them  to 
perfection,  years  of 
thought  and  deep 
study  are  involved,  for 
the  machine  that  looks 

well  and  perfect  so  far  as  the  drawings  show  may  not  be  a  perfect  success  when  put  to 
every-day  work  and  to  the  test  of  time.  Sometimes  a  failure  of  a  newly-designed  machine 
ruins  the  designer,  but  points  out  the  road  to  success  to  another  inventor,  who  therefore 
profits  by  the  first  failure.  Indeed,  successful  inventing  or  designing  depends  very  largely 
upon  first  ascertaining  what  has  already  been  done  by  others  so  as  to  know  what  has 
succeeded  and  what  has  not.  Yery  few  important  machines  maintain  their  original  form  of 
design,  as  experience  in  their  use  points  out  where  improvement  can  profitably  be  made. 

The  busy  brains  of  the  inventor,  to  whom  we  owe  so  much  of  our  advancement  in 
machine  construction,  have  also  been  brought  to  bear  upon  the  making  of  screws  without 


A   NUT-TAPPING   MACHINE. 


170 


THE    WONDERLAND    OF    WORK. 


the  intervention  of  the  screw-turning  or  screw-cutting  machine,  and  machines  have  actually 
been  made  in  France  that  forge  the  coarse-threaded  screws  called  "lag-screws,"  which 
are  used  for  holding  heavy  pieces  of  timber  together.  Indeed,  there  seems  no  reason  to 
doubt  that  as  man  increases  his  knowledge  and  facilities  in  the  processes  of  machine 


VIEW   OF   THE   SCREW-FOEGING   MACHINE   AND   ITS   FFRNACE. 


forging,  much  of  the  work  requiring  costly  machinery  to  cut  it  cold  will  be  forged  and 
pressed  into  finished  shape  while  heated. 

Indeed,  in  some  of  the  machine-shops  of  New  England  much  plain  work,  such  as  the 
iron  handles  that  are  fitted  to  the  hand-wheels  of  lathes,  planing-machines,  and  drilling- 


THE    SCREW-FORGING    MACHINE. 


171 


machines,   is   now  beautifully  finished   by  forging   operations.     The  dies  in  which  such 
finishing  is  done  are  carefully  smoothed,  and  the  work  comes  from  them  having  a  pale  blue, 
and  looks  something  like  the  blued  parts 
of  rifles. 

You  must  know,  however,  that 
whenever  forged  work  is  to  be  brought 
to  this  state  of  perfection  the  final  finish 
must  be  made  at  about  the  time  the  iron 
is  losing  its  red  heat,  and  that  it  re- 
quires to  be  hammered  very  quickly 
while  it  cools  to  black  heat.  During 
the  whole  of  the  forging  the  scale  that 
forms  on  the  surface  when  the  work  is 
red-hot  must  be  carefully  cleaned  off, 
and  water  must  be  applied  to  keep  the 
work  surface  free  from  scale,  which  it 
does  very  effectively  if  it  is  liberally 
supplied.  Perhaps  you  have  heard  a 
loud  report,  like  that  of  a  gun,  follow 
the  striker's  blow  after  the  blacksmith 
has  dipped  his  "swage"  in  his  water- 
pail,  and  this  is  caused  by  the  water 
flashing  into  steam  when  driven  forcibly 
against  the  red-hot  iron. 

But  to  return  to  our  screw-forging 
machines.  The  screws  are  simply  re- 
volved slowly  between  a  pair  of  "  dies  " 
having  the  necessary  screw-thread  in 
them,  and  are  thus  pressed  into  shape, 
being  of  the  proper  diameter  when  the 
faces  of  the  dies  meet  under  the  rapidly 
falling  blows  of  the  upper  die,  which  is 
operated  by  a  belt  upon  the  fly-wheel  at 
the  top  of  the  machine.  The  furnace 
stands  close  to  the  machine,  so  as  to  be 
close  at  hand  and  not  give  the  screws 
time  to  cool.  The  mechanism  of  the 
machine  consists  of  a  series  of  foot- 
levers  to  adjust  the  height  of  the  bot- 
tom die  and  to  lower  it  down  to  get  the  THE  FOKGED  SCKEW' 
finished  screw  out,  and  a  revolving 

shaft  with  a  cam  to  work  the  top  die,  which  strikes  its  blows  very  quickly  indeed,  so  that 
they  make  considerable  clatter,  as  indeed  all  forging  machines  do. 


THE   MECHANISM   OF   THE   SCKEW-FOKGING   MACHINE. 


CIRCULATION  DEPARTMENT 
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The  wonder! 

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J.OOTT 

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02093 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


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